Star Trek: Into Darkness
by McIntyre58
Summary: I just want to make it clear that I absolutely love this movie. But, I had a few ideas about how to make the story different, and I wanted to practice some writing. So, this is my take on Star Trek: Into Darkness. There won't be a lot of major changes, but enough that it is definitely different. Is it better? That's up to you.
1. Chapter 1

_**AN: Hello, everyone! So, I want to re-iterate one more time: I love this movie. It's a great adventure with some awesome moments and a kick-ass villain. But, like every film, it's not perfect, and I don't expect it to be, but I often think about how movies I love (or hate) could have been different. Writing is a really fun way for me to express that, so, without further ado, here's my version of Star Trek: Into Darkness.**_

* * *

**NIBIRU**

**CLASS M PLANET**

* * *

It was anything but a peaceful day on Nibiru. This was different from normal, as by Starfleet records, the planet was still in the very early stages of development. The completely white-skinned, black-eyed natives were about on the same level as tribal humans; their population existing as a small group, but steadily increasing. The tribe lived in a large, pyramid-shaped structure woven together out of red wood and vines. The environment surrounding the structure was a dense forest made of this plant life, with three paths going outward into it from the natives' home, while a giant lake was spread underneath it. The lake led back to an enormous volcano, which was currently billowing smoke and pieces of lava. This was the largest threat that Nibiru had ever faced, and if the volcano erupted, all hope of the civilization's evolution would be obliterated in seconds.

Life is rarely so simple.

A figure wrapped head-to-toe in blue robes ran out of the natives' home structure as fast as he could, carrying a small object that was shaped like a scroll, but more elegant in its design and decoration. The figure ran with good reason, as moments after he made it outside, a cry in the native's language was sent up, and the entire tribe was after him. He ran down one of the paths until it became overgrown, transitioning into the red forest, and he found himself weaving around trees as he moved deeper into the dense woods. Behind him, the tribe followed, wrapped in yellow robes and gathering spears into their hands as this stranger ran away with their most precious object.

The blue-robed figured eventually reached the clearing he had been heading towards, only to double back in shock at what he saw. An enormous alien creature turned and roared at him, baring its sharp, long teeth, and standing itself up on its four feet to raise a clawed paw towards the figure. Before it got the chance to land a hit, the robed figure pulled out a phaser from inside his robes and fired it into the creature's chest. A flash of blue light spread across the beast's chest and it stumbled back, before slumping to the ground, unconscious. When the creature fell, another blue-robed figure came into view behind it.

"Damn it, man!" The new figure cried, pulling away the robes around his face to reveal the scowling face of Dr. Leonard McCoy. "That was our ride! You just stunned our ride!"

The first man pulled his own robes away as well, revealing the confused face of Captain James Kirk. "You said you were getting us something small and non-threatening!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but I couldn't find anything friendly!" McCoy shot back.

The native's yell rang through the forest again, causing the two Starfleet officers to look back into the tangled red vegetation.

"Yeah, that's a common problem." Kirk muttered, before taking off running into the red forest.

McCoy looked beyond him for a second before the natives came into view, and after a terrified look, he followed his friend. The natives kept up with them, still yelling after the two strangers.

"What the hell did you take?" McCoy yelled after Kirk as they ran down a small hill, continuing down the entangled path.

"I have no idea, but they were bowing to it!" Kirk replied, glancing back to see how close their pursuers were as he pulled his communicator out from another fold in his robes. "Kirk to Shuttle One, locals are out of the kill zone, you're clear!" He yelled into it. "Repeat, Spock, get in there, neutralize the volcano, and let's get out of here!"

Kirk and McCoy continued to run, managing to stay ahead of Nibiru's natives for the time being, but the locals had other ideas. Spears started flying through the air, bouncing off of trees or sticking into the ground, all narrowly missing the two.

"They're trying to kill us!" McCoy yelled at his friend in panic, before a spear flew inches over his head. "They're trying to kill us, Jim!"

* * *

The shuttle Kirk had been calling was currently flying inside of the volcano, the interference of the ash cloud pitching it through the air while Hikaru Sulu tried to stay in control at the pilot's chair. This was normally an easy job for him, but these weren't normal conditions.

"We have to do this now!" Sulu said, standing up from the pilot's chair and running back into the shuttle's main bay. "I told the captain this ship wasn't meant for this kind of heat!"

The other two people in the shuttle were busy, as Nyota Uhura was finishing the process of placing Spock inside of a heavily armoured, red suit. The suit was designed to withstand extreme heat, and both of them hoped that it would stand up to these conditions, which had never been truly tested.

"Captain." Spock said into the comm, his voice as neutral as usual. "Did the indigenous population see you?"

"No, Mr. Spock, they did not!" Kirk replied.

"The Prime Directive clearly states that there can be no interference with the internal development of the alien civilization." Spock went on, Uhura laughing while she checked the armour.

"I know what it says!" Kirk said. "That's why I'm running through the forest wearing a disguise! Now, drop off your super ice cube, and let's go! Kirk out!" He finished, deciding to focus on running faster.

"You're good." Uhura told Spock, snapping the last piece into place. Spock nodded, kneeling down and opening the cold fusion device to prepare it for detonation.

"If we're going to do this, we have to do it now!" Sulu repeated warningly, taking his place in the pilot's chair once again. "This ash is killing our coils."

"Are you sure you don't want me to go instead?" Uhura asked Spock, as she placed the suit's helmet over his head, and heard it click into place.

Spock gave her a quizzical look through the helmet's open glass faceplate. "That would be highly illogical, as I am already outfitted for-"

"Spock, I was kidding." Uhura interrupted, leaning up and kissing the glass. "You got this." She said reassuringly, smiling up at him.

"Guys, maybe you're not hearing me!" Sulu called, looking back at them. "We have to go, now!"

"I'll see you in ninety seconds." Uhura said to Spock, before turning and running to the cockpit, clearing the shuttle's bay for the approaching drop-off. The door to the cockpit slid closed and locked behind her, while Spock grabbed a cable descending from the ceiling and attached its end to his armour, where it clicked and locked into place.

Uhura looked back at Spock, not wanting to pull the lever that would send him down into that death zone, but at Sulu's repeated urging she pushed the silver bar upwards.

The shuttle's drop bay door opened, sending Spock downward while ash and fire filled the shuttle's cabin. The bay door slammed shut, only allowing room for the cable connected to Spock to stay in connected.

Uhura leaned back in her chair, repeating her hopes that the plan would go accordingly.

Spock plummeted downward into the centre of the volcano, still able to feel the heat through his armour's protective shell. He swung back and forth on the cable as he came down through the ash cloud, the bubbling lava becoming visible.

Up above him, the shuttle continued to spin in the air, but now one of its engines was burning too hot, causing flames to start to spread across the end of the wing. A small red alert appeared on one of the screens in front of Sulu, and he read _"Engine Overheating_". Beside him, Uhura watched the depth sensor on Spock's armour steadily drop several feet per second.

"We can't hold this position!" Sulu warned, speaking into the comms. "Spock, we've got to pull you back up!"

"Negative!" Spock replied. "This is our only chance to save this species! If this volcano erupts, this planet dies!"

His complaints were cut short as the damaged engine exploded, sending a wave of fire across the underside of the shuttle, and jarring it wildly to the side.

"We need to pull him back up." Sulu said to Uhura. When she hesitated, he yelled. "NOW!"

Uhura pulled a switch above her head downward, and just before Spock touched down on a large piece of rock jutting upward, the cable yanked him back up into the air. But as the shuttle flew with full power upwards out of the volcano, the strain and the fire underneath it caused the cable to snap. Spock grunted as the force hit him, and he fell several feet downwards, smashing into another large outcropping of rack. The armour took the brunt of the landing, but Spock still felt the jarring impact. He rolled across the rock, the cold fusion device disconnecting from his armour and clattering away. Luckily, it stopped before fell into the lava.

"Spock! Are you okay?" Uhura yelled into the comm.

Spock slowly got to his feet, looking around him as the lava's bubbling steadily increased, the sound of it and the wind dulled but still roaring. "I am, surprisingly, alive." He saw the cold fusion device, and began to make his way towards it. "Stand by."

"We have to get him back." Uhura said to Sulu, while the shuttle still ascended. "I'll suit up, I'm going to go down." She undid her safety belt, and started to stand up.

"We have to abandon the shuttle." Sulu cut her off.

"We can't just leave him, Sulu!" Uhura exclaimed.

"We don't have a choice!" Sulu replied. "Uhura, I'm sorry."

"Spock!" Uhura said into the comms. "We're going back to the Enterprise. We'll get you out of there!"

Sulu set the autopilot and ran to the shuttle's main bay, speaking into the comms that Kirk received. "Captain, I'm abandoning the shuttle. You've got to make it to the Enterprise on your own." As he spoke, he pulled off his uniform, leaving him dressed in a blue and yellow wetsuit.

"_Wonderful." _Kirk's sarcastic reply crackled.

Sulu turned back to the shuttle's cockpit, where Uhura came into view, wearing a similar, but red, wetsuit, and fixing a breathing mask to her shoulder. "Uhura, you ready to swim?" He asked her.

"I'm ready." Uhura nodded.

* * *

Kirk and McCoy were still running through the forest, pushing red branches away from their faces as strange, alien plants squelched shut around their path. The natives were still shouting behind them, but the Starfleet officers were staying ahead of them.

"Jim!" McCoy yelled, remembering the route they had taken. "Jim, the beach is that way!"

"I know! The plan's changed, we're not going to the beach!" Jim yelled back. As they ran by a tree, he put the artifact he had stolen on a branch, and a long strip of paper rolled out. It was covered in alien symbols and language, clearly the centre of the native's worship.

"No, no, no!" McCoy yelled, but he received no response.

Behind them, the natives reached the paper, falling to their knees and resumed their bowing, forgetting about their quarry instantly.

"I hate this!" McCoy yelled.

"I know you do!" Kirk replied.

The two of them reached the edge of the forest, which led to a cliff face. The change of plans was unexpected and undesirable, but they still threw themselves over the edge, screaming the whole way down. When they splashed into the water, they quickly shed their blue robes, leaving them in matching wetsuits. Small turbines in their boots propelled them forward as they attached breathing masks over their faces. The turbines sent them speeding through the water towards the enormous silver spaceship that was resting, close to their diving point. Even though it was hiding from the local's sights, the _U.S.S. Enterprise's_ lights lit up the ocean, glowing and flashing, while its engine let out a steady, quiet hum. Kirk and McCoy approached the outer hull, where a small section opened, allowing them to enter the ship via an airlock. The water was extracted from the circular room, letting Kirk and McCoy slowly find their footing. They threw their breathing masks to the floor as the door into the hallway outside opened, revealing an irritated-looking Montgomery Scott.

"Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is to hide a spaceship on the bottom of the ocean?" He asked, the tone in his Scottish accent reinforcing his annoyance. "We've been down here since last night! The saltwater's going to ruin the-"

"Scotty!" Kirk interrupted, shaking some dripping water out of his face. "Where's Spock?"

"Still in the volcano, sir." Scotty answered.

Kirk sighed, and he and McCoy ran out of the airlock, followed by Scotty.

* * *

Back inside the volcano, Spock had reached the cold fusion device. He clicked it open, and was very grateful to find that its displays lit up, meaning it was intact. He quickly pulled out the device's remote detonator, clicking a few buttons to initiate the detonation sequence. The device hummed to life, glowing blue.

But a loud groan distracted Spock, and he looked up slowly at the lava. An enormous wave was rising into the sky, and after a few seconds it exploded upwards, sending giant chunks of lava outwards. The force of the explosion sent Spock stumbling back. The lava chunks burned down the sides of the mountain, one of them smashing into the native's home structure, blowing it to pieces. The natives watched this in the woods, yelling and running further away, while the tribe's elder stood still, staring ahead in shock.

* * *

Kirk and McCoy ran towards the door to the bridge, which slid open, revealing the brightly lit, circular white room, filled with the familiar, almost comforting electronic noises of the various consoles. But the crew was hardly in a relaxed mood. All members were busy at their stations, monitoring the mission that was still going on, while Sulu had taken his place at the pilot's chair, and Uhura at the comms.

"Captain on the bridge!" Pavel Chekov's young, Russian voice rang out.

Kirk stopped at the console between Chekov and Sulu, McCoy standing next to him. "Lieutenant!" He called over to Uhura, who rose to her feet. "Do we have an open channel to Mr. Spock?"

"The heat's frying his comms, but we still have contact." Uhura answered, appearing to be on the verge of tears.

Kirk nodded, turning away and pressing a switch on the console. "Spock?' He called into it.

"_I have activated the device, Captain."_ Spock's crackling, but still neutral, voice reported. _"When the countdown is complete, the reaction should render the volcano inert."_

"It's going to render him inert." McCoy muttered, as the crew looked at a display of the volcano on the bridge's main screen, showing that Spock was still trapped at the bottom.

"Do we have use of the transporters?" Kirk asked Chekov.

"Negative, sir." Sulu cut in.

"Not in this magnetic field." Chekov clarified.

Scotty was standing in front of the bridge's main screen, and started when an enormous fish swam by. He started to point it out to the Captain to reinforce his point, but decided it was better to leave it alone.

"I need to beam Spock back to the ship, give me one way to do it." Kirk demanded.

"It's an issue of proximity as well, sir." Chekov replied. "Maybe if we had a more direct line of sight-"

"Hold on, wee man, you're talking about an active volcano!" Scotty cut him off. "Sir, if that thing erupts, I cannot guarantee that we can withstand the heat!"

"I don't know if we can maintain that kind of altitude." Sulu added.

Kirk breathed heavily, trying to think of a solution.

"_Our shuttle was concealed by the ash cloud, but the _Enterprise_ is too large."_ Spock's voice said through the comms. _"If utilized in a rescue effort, it would be revealed to the indigenous species."_

Uhura rolled her eyes.

"Spock, nobody knows the rules better than you, but there has to be a way!" Kirk replied, now leaning over the console. "There has _got_ to be an exception!"

"_None."_ Spock replied. _"Such action violates the Prime Directive."_

"Shut up, Spock!" McCoy exclaimed, annoyed. "We're trying to save you, damn it!"

"_Doctor, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."_

"Spock, we're talking about your life!" Kirk yelled.

"_The rule cannot be broken-" _Was all that came through the comms before Spock's voice faded away to static. Uhura held a hand to her mouth, beginning to panic.

"Spock!" Kirk yelled into the console again, before turning to Uhura."Try to get him back online." He ordered her.

Uhura nodded, running to her console. As soon as she sat down, she started pulling every switch, turning every knob, using every trick she knew to try to regain communications with Spock. She was not going to lose him here.

"Ninety seconds to detonation." Chekov reported nervously.

Kirk stood back up, sighing and staring ahead at the screen. The bridge was silent, except for the regular whirring and beeping, as Kirk stared at the red dot indicating the half-human, half-Vulcan. Every plan seemed impossible, and there seemed to be only one option left.

"If Spock was here, and I was there, what would he do?" Kirk asked McCoy.

"He'd let you die." McCoy answered.

Kirk nodded. It was time to make a decision.

* * *

Inside the volcano, Spock looked around him, watching as the lava started to bubble higher and higher. Eventually, he realized that there was no way out of this. Logically, he would die here, now. Spock closed his eyes, falling to his knees and holding his arms outwards, waiting for it all to end.

* * *

The natives were bowing before their elder, who held their holy scroll in the air. They all prayed in unison, hoping to avoid the death that their mountain was spewing down at them. But suddenly, an enormous sound, unrecognizable to them, filled the air, causing them to pause, and the elder turning to stare in the direction where the noise was originating. The tribe slowly got to their feet and made their way to the cliff face, seeing that the ocean was bubbling strangely. They saw the reason seconds after, as an enormous silver shape lifted slowly out of the water. The natives stared in wonder at this strange sight, none of them having any idea what it really was. Water falling away from the emerging shape splashed against them, but they stood their ground, completely bewildered and entranced. The blue lights and flashing of the engines seemed to be the sounds of a disturbed god.

* * *

On the _Enterprise's_ bridge, Kirk and McCoy stared at the counter on the cold fusion device's detonation counted down from ten seconds.

Spock wasn't paying attention as the white light trails of beaming spun around him, increasing gradually, causing him to disappear from where he was kneeling.

The cold fusion device finished its countdown and beeped twice before detonating. It sent a wave of energy outward, stopping plumes of lava from flying up into the air by solidifying them into solid, frozen stone. The smoke kept pouring out of the volcano's mouth, but the danger was past. The _Enterprise_ sped away from the neutralized mountain, the engines leaving twin trails of blue light in the sky.

The white trails of light spun away from Spock's body gradually, and he opened his eyes, looking confused at the sight of the beaming deck. He slowly got to his feet, smoke still emanating off his red armour.

Kirk and McCoy ran into the room, Kirk excitedly yelling "Spock! You all right?"

"Captain, you let them see our ship." Spock said.

McCoy rolled his eyes. "He's fine."

The comms to the room beeped, and Uhura's voice came through. _"Bridge to Captain Kirk."_

"Yes, Lieutenant?" Kirk asked.

"_Is Commander Spock on-board, sir?"_ Uhura asked, slightly nervous.

"Safely and soundly." Kirk answered.

At her station, Uhura sighed in relief. "Please notify him that his device has successfully detonated." She sat back, pulling off her earpiece and lightly tossing it onto her console, sighing again and rubbing her eyes.

"You hear that?" Kirk asked. "Congratulations, Spock. You saved the world."

"You violated the Prime Directive." Spock stated, still trying to get his point across.

"Oh, come on, Spock." Kirk rolled his eyes. "So they saw us. Big deal."

* * *

Back on the surface of Nibiru, the natives were crowded in a circle around the elder, who was tracing a shape into the dirt with his staff. One of them dropped their ceremonial scroll, and they all rose to their feet to praise their new god. The image of that strange, silver spirit who had risen from the ocean and saved them from the volcano's eruption, before disappearing into the sky was now in their minds forever.

As the tribe took up a celebratory chant, the elder finished his rendition of the _Enterprise_.

* * *

The _Enterprise_ had cleared Nibiru's atmosphere and was now readily speeding through space. Eventually, when all was ready, the twin thrusters lit up, the engine's hum grew louder, and the ship snapped forward into warp speed, leaving trails of light that slowly faded away into small blue particles in space.

Off to the next adventure.

* * *

**EARTH**

**LONDON**

**STARDATE 2259.55**

* * *

Thomas Harewood rolled over and clicked it off his beeping alarm clock, at his usual waking time of five o'clock in the morning. His enormous dog ran into his bedroom, jumping up onto the bed and walking around on top of him and his wife, Rima. Thomas pulled the sheets off of himself and got up to face the day, the dog lying down on top of Rima. She petted the large animal's head, trying to distract herself from what the day might bring.

Both she and her husband had a feeling it wouldn't be good.

Thomas and Rima shared a car ride away from the centre of the city, where their apartment was located, out into the country. The only sound was the low humming of the car's engine as it kept them off of the ground and kept them moving forward. Eventually they arrived at the large, almost castle-like Royal Children's Hospital, bracing themselves as usual when they entered.

They met up with the doctor thy had been looking for rather quickly, dispensing with the pleasantries as doctors and nurses moved around them, along with patients being rolled by. The Harewoods' bad predictions had been correct.

They entered their daughter's room together, slowly walking towards the bed. Lucille Harewood appeared to be sleeping, but her clammy skin and loss of hair gave away a much worse condition. Rima carefully replaced the stuffed animal that was against her daughter's shoulder with one that she had brought, tearfully noting to herself that the last animal hadn't moved.

Rima leaned in to kiss her daughter's forehead, but broke down crying, gripping her hand. Lucille had run out of time and options. Thomas stood at the foot of the bed, staring at his wife and daughter, tears slowly forming in his eyes.

Thomas couldn't stay in there for long, so he excused himself with the excuse for needing some air, walking to one of the balconies outside of the hospital. A million thoughts were running through his head as he walked over the ornate brickwork and stopped at the edge, holding himself up and breathing heavily over. He didn't want to lose control here, but he felt like he might.

"_And even if I did, who would judge me?"_ Thomas thought. _"Who could possibly judge a father who was about to lose a daughter? Who had the right to-"_

"I can save her."

The deep voice pierced through Thomas's thoughts, and so he turned to its source, a tall, pale man with an angular face and deep blue eyes. The man was staring at him, the breeze lightly moving his long, black hair.

"What did you say?" Thomas asked, confused.

"Your daughter." The strange man replied. "I can save her."

"Who are you?" Thomas asked, still hesitant, but now slightly hopeful.

The man smiled.

* * *

**SAN FRANCISCO**

* * *

Music was blaring through Kirk's apartment. Discarded glasses and clothes were scattered around, but still resembling a trail leading to his bed. At the beeping sound of a communicator, Kirk jumped out from between the writhing sheets grabbing around for it.

A girl in pink underwear rose up from the sheets as well. "Jim, just let it go!" She complained.

Another girl sat up as well, matching the other in every way, from their faces to their tails. "You're not actually going to answer that, are you?" She asked.

* * *

A shuttle flew by Starfleet Headquarters, while multiple uniformed officers stood around conversing. The enormous buildings spread across the large spread of land, while Spock and Kirk strolled towards the main offices.

"Spock, I'm telling you." Kirk was saying. "This is why he called, I can feel it."

"Your feeling aside, I consider it highly unlikely that we will be selected for the new program." Spock replied.

"Why else would Pike want to see us?" Kirk asked, confused. "I mean, forget about seniority, they gave us the newest ship in the fleet. Who else are they going to send out?"

"I can think of numerous possibilities-" Spock started.

"A five year mission, Spock!" Kirk exclaimed, abandoning his pattern of walking for a sort of excited dance and patting the Vulcan's chest. "That's deep space, that's uncharted territory! Think of how incredible that's going to be!" As they passed by a pair of women, Kirk winked at them. "Hey ladies, Jim Kirk." He smiled.

Spock had no reaction, continuing to walk normally.

* * *

"Uneventful." Pike said.

"Admiral?" Kirk asked, confused.

"That's the way you described the survey of Nibiru in your captain's log." Pike clarified, tossing the file down on his desk.

"Oh, yes sir." Kirk replied. "I didn't want to waste your time going over the details of-"

"Yeah, tell me more about this volcano." Pike interrupted. "Our data says it was highly volatile, and if it were to erupt, it would wipe out the planet."

"Well, let's hope it doesn't, sir." Kirk said, avoiding Pike's eyes.

"Something tells me it won't." Pike nodded.

There were a few seconds of silence in the office. Spock looked over at his captain, realizing where the conversation was going.

"Uh, sir, volatile is all relative." Kirk said, quickly trying to come up with an excuse. "Maybe our data was off?"

"Or maybe it didn't erupt because Mr. Spock detonated a cold fusion device inside it." Pike said.

Kirk's eyes flicked to the Admiral in confusion.

"Right after a civilization that's barely invented the wheel happened to see a starship rising out of their ocean." Pike continued, gesturing at Spock. "That is pretty much how you'd describe it, is it not?"

Kirk looked over at Spock, realizing what had happened.

"Admiral, I-" Spock started.

"You filed a report?" Kirk interrupted incredulously. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I incorrectly assumed that you would be truthful in your captain's log." Spock explained.

"I would have been if I didn't have to save your life!" Kirk shot back.

"A fact for which I am immeasurably grateful, and the very reason I felt it necessary to take responsibility for-"

"Take responsibility, yeah." Kirk laughed to himself. "That'd be very noble, Pointy, if you weren't also throwing me under the bus."

"Pointy?" Spock asked, confused. "Is that a derogatory reference to-"

"Gentlemen." Pike interrupted, standing up with the help of his cane. He slowly made his way from behind his desk. "Starfleet's mandate is to explore and to observe, not to interfere."

"Had the mission gone according to plan, Admiral, the indigenous species would never have been aware of our interference." Spock said.

"That's a technicality." Pike responded, stopping his limping walk in front of the Vulcan.

"I am Vulcan, sir, we embrace technicality." Spock replied.

"Are you giving me attitude, Spock?" Pie asked, now sounding irritated.

"I am expressing multiple attitudes simultaneously, sir. To which are you referring?" Spock asked, with the smallest hint of sarcasm.

"Out." Pike said. When Spock didn't move, he clarified. "You're dismissed, Commander."

Spock paused, looking to Kirk for a response, but Kirk kept looking ahead, avoiding his eyes. Spock turned and left the office, the automatic door sliding closed behind him.

"Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass you are?" Pike asked the young captain.

"I think so, sir." Kirk answered.

"So, tell me what you did wrong." Pike continued. "What's the lesson to be learned here?"

"Never trust a Vulcan." Kirk replied.

"No, see, you can't even answer the question." Pike sighed. "You lied on an official report. You think that the rules don't apply to you because you disagree with them."

"That's why you talked me into signing up in the first place." Kirk said. "That's why you gave me your ship."

"I gave you my ship because I saw greatness in you." Pike replied. "And now, I see that you haven't got an ounce of humility."

"What was I supposed to do?" Kirk asked, turning to face the admiral. "Let Spock die?"

"You're missing the point-" Pike started.

"I don't think I am!" Kirk cut him off. "Sir, what would you have done?"

"I wouldn't have risked my First Officer's life in the first place!" Pike shot back. "You were supposed to survey a planet, not alter its destiny! You violated a dozen Starfleet regulations, and almost got everyone under your command killed."

"Except I didn't!" Kirk exclaimed. "Do you know how many crew members I've lost since I became captain? Not one!"

"That's your problem!" Pike interjected. "You think you're infallible, you think you can't make mistakes. It's a pattern with you! That rules are for other people!"

"Some should be!" Kirk replied.

"And what's worse is you're using blind luck to justify you playing God!" Pike continued.

Kirk stopped complaining, looking to the ground. He knew that Pike was right, he just didn't want to admit it.

"Given the circumstances, this has been brought to Admiral Marcus' attention." Pike went on, his voice quieter. "He convened a special tribunal to which I was not invited. You understand what Starfleet regulations mandate be done at this point."

Kirk looked back up at Pike, his expression slowly changing from concern to shock.

"They've taken the _Enterprise_ away from you." Pike said, almost regretfully. "And they're sending you back to the Academy."

Kirk didn't know what to say, the news had hit him so deep. After a few seconds of staring at Pike and hoping it wasn't true, he found his voice again. "Admiral, listen-" He started.

"No, I'm not going to listen." Pike interrupted, and continued as Kirk tried to make excuses, Pike slowly raising his voice over Kirk's. "Why should I listen? You don't listen to anyone but yourself!"

"Every decision I've made has been to-" Kirk tried to say.

"No! I can't listen!" Pike cut him off. "You don't comply with the rules. You don't take responsibility for anything, and you don't respect the chair."

The look on Kirk's face now was just one of defeat.

"You know why?" Pike asked. "Because you're not ready for it."

* * *

**LONDON**

* * *

The multiple skyscrapers of the city stabbed upwards into the sky, seemingly unrecognizable from each other. In one of the building's apartments, the strange man from the Royal Children's Hospital was examining a series of machines littered around the small apartment he was currently occupying. Red liquid was pouring out of a small machine into a small glass vial. When it stopped, the man picked it up, spinning in his chair. He slowly placed the vial into a small case, and then grabbed a ring, placing that inside the case beside it.

* * *

**THE ROYAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL**

* * *

Thomas Harewood was standing over Lucille's bed as he pulled the vial of red liquid out of the case, looking at it sceptically. He held the vial up to the machine that regulated the medicines into his daughter's body, hesitating for a second before pushing the vial into an open slot. The red liquid slowly drained out of the vial, and he watched it seep into one of Lucille's IV glasses, the clear liquid becoming stained red. While he did all of this, his wife slept on the couch on the far side of the room.

Thomas turned to look at the wall-sized screen displaying all of his daughter's vitals. He smiled in relief as all of the red signals turned green, her heartbeat rising to a normal level, and her blood pressure leveling out.

"_It worked."_ Thomas thought. _"It actually worked. Forgive me."_

His relief was short-lived. He leaned down over Lucille and placed a long kiss on her forehead. He had saved her, but now it was time for him to uphold his end of the deal with the strange man. He wanted to apologize to his wife, and his daughter, but there wasn't time.

Now, he had work to do.

* * *

Thomas held the case that the man had given him tightly in his hand as he walked down a busy London street, stopping outside the Kelvin Memorial Archive, which had been named after a the first Federation starship lost to the time-travelling Romulan ship _Narada_. Thomas looked across the street and saw the strange man standing there, staring at him. Knowing what would happen if he didn't hold up his end of the bargain, Thomas entered the Archive.

He walked down the ornate, museum-like hallway to the elevator at the end. A facial scanning blue light glowed across his face, and the elevator attendant nodded him past. When Thomas entered the elevator, he pressed a button and felt it move downward. He removed his hat and swallowed deeply as the elevator took him further down through multiple basement levels.

The elevator doors opened to reveal an enormous underground factory, filled with people and multiple forms of machinery moving around the large halls. Thomas walked down a long stretch past forklifts and machinery sparking, now holding a glass of water. He arrived at his desk, setting the glass down and clicked multiple keys at his computer, opening a file. He clicked a few more keys, and a new window popped up.

**TRANSMISSION SENT**

_Recipient: Admiral A. Marcus_

Thomas stared at the window for a moment, enjoying his final defiant action against the man forcing him to do this, before going on to finish his job. Tears rolled down his cheek as he stared at the glass of water, pulling the ring that the man had given him. He tentatively dropped the ring into the water, where it bubbled and started to fizz and hiss.

There was a click, and the ring exploded outward, erupting into an enormous fireball that expanded around the entire factory and upwards, consuming the whole building and all of its facilities.

The bright London day was filled with the sounds of screams and death, followed soon after by sirens of emergency vehicles arriving too late.

* * *

A round ice cube clinked down into a glass, followed closely by scotch. Kirk emptied the glass in one swig, ignoring the generic jazz music and sounds of people enjoying themselves filling the bar and focusing on his thoughts. He sighed, looking to his side. A beautiful girl was wiping down the bar, but she paused to smile at him.

Kirk smiled back, nodding to himself and looking forward again. He thought about the Enterprise for a second, but then decided that he needed a distraction. He turned back and opened his mouth to say something, but Pike sat down in front of him before he even got a sound out.

Kirk groaned, looking away, while a look from Pike sent the girl away with one of his trademark "Admiral looks", and he set his can against the bar, folding his hands together.

"How'd you find me?" Kirk asked.

"It's the farthest away of your many hiding places where you drink and think." Pike replied. "I figured you didn't want to be close to HQ right now."

"You figured right." Kirk nodded.

"You know, the first time I found you was in a dive like this." Pike said. "Remember that? You got your ass handed to you."

"No, I didn't." Kirk shook his head.

"You don't?" Pike asked.

"No, that's just not what happened."

"That was an epic beating."

"No, it wasn't."

"You had napkins hanging out of your nose." Pike said, and Kirk started to laugh. "Did you not?"

Kirk smiled at the memory. "Yeah, that was a good fight."

"A good fight." Pike nodded, before shaking his head at what Kirk had just told him. "I think that's your problem right there."

Kirk shrugged, turning to face the admiral, not really knowing how to respond.

"They gave her back to me." Pike said. "The _Enterprise_."

There was some silence between the men while Kirk processed the news. Not only had he lost the ship, but now Pike had been given it back. His chances of sitting in the captain's chair again were getting slimmer and slimmer.

"Congratulations." Kirk eventually said. "Watch your back with that First Officer, though." He added, pouring more scotch into his glass.

"Spock's not going to be working with me." Pike replied. "He's been transferred. _U.S.S. Bradbury_."

Kirk took another drink, also letting that process.

"You're going to be my First Officer." Pike told him.

Kirk looked at him, his processing clearly stopped in its tracks.

"Yeah, Marcus took some convincing." Pike continued. "But every now and then, I can make a good case."

Kirk just stared in amazement for a few seconds. "What did you tell him?" He asked.

"The truth." Pike answered. "That I believe in you. That if anybody deserves a second chance, it's Jim Kirk."

Kirk smiled, looking down at the bar, at a loss for words. "I...I don't know what to say." He said.

Pike smiled back. "That is a first. It's going to okay, son."

Kirk's relieved smile briefly twitched, looking like he was going to cry. He managed to push it back down, but the happiness and elation he was used to feeling before going out in the _Enterprise_ had returned.

Before the conversation could continue, Pike's communicator chirped, and he pulled it out of his pocket, opening it and reading the message. "Emergency session, Daystrom." He and Kirk exchanged a look, both of them recognizing the code. "That's us."

"Yeah." Kirk nodded, sliding his glass back across the bar.

"Suit up." Pike patted Kirk's shoulder, getting up to leave.

Kirk took a moment to smile to himself again. He didn't know any way that this day could be ruined.

* * *

Night had fallen by the time Kirk arrived at Starfleet Headquarters. Pike had gone on ahead of him while Kirk changed into his uniform, and just as he entered the building, multiple officers walking around him, Spock appeared from around a corner.

"Captain." The Vulcan greeted him.

"Not anymore, Spock. First Officer." Kirk corrected, as the two of them entered an elevator, Kirk pressing the switch to make it ascend. "I was demoted, and you were re-assigned."

"It is fortunate that the consequences were not more severe." Spock noted.

"You've got to be kidding me." Kirk muttered.

"Captain, it was never my intention-" Spock started.

"Not Captain." Kirk interrupted. "I saved your life, Spock. You wrote a report, I lost my ship."

The elevator door opened and Kirk stormed out, Spock in pursuit.

"Captain, I see now that I should have alerted you to the fact that I submitted the report." Spock admitted.

"No, I'm familiar with your compulsion to follow the rules, but I can't do that!" Kirk replied, as they stopped outside of the boardroom. "Where I come from, if someone saves your life, you don't stab him in the back."

"Vulcans cannot lie." Spock pointed out.

"Then I'm talking to the half-human part of you." Kirk replied, to which he received a slight reaction from his friend. "All right? Do you understand why I went back for you?"

They were interrupted by an older, African-American man coming over to them. "Commander Spock?" The man asked. "Frank Abbott, _U.S.S. Bradbury_." He introduced himself. "Guess you're with me."

"Yes, Captain." Spock nodded.

Abbott nodded back, walking away to take his seat at the circular table.

Kirk sighed. "Look, the truth is...I'm going to miss you." He admitted.

Spock opened his mouth as if to say something, but didn't. Kirk raised his eyebrows in expectation, hoping maybe that Spock would threaten the fabric of reality and repeat a sentiment. But after a few seconds of silence, Spock closed his mouth, saying nothing. Kirk rolled his eyes and sighed, walking away from the Vulcan.

The meeting began shortly afterwards, Admiral Marcus addressing everyone at the table.

"Thank you for convening on such short notice." Marcus began, walking around to the head of the table. "Be seated."

Everyone followed his order, looking at the screen positioned in front of their chairs.

"By now, some of you have heard what happened in London." Marcus went on, as the room's lights dimmed, bathing the assembled Starfleet officers in electronic blue light. "The target was a Starfleet data archive. Now it's a damned hole in the ground and over two hundred men and women are dead. One hour ago, I received a message from a Starfleet officer, who confessed to carrying out this attack, and that he was being forced to do it by this man."

On everyone's screens, the image of an angular-faced man appeared, along with several statistics and background information on the person.

"Commander John Harrison. He's one of our own." Marcus explained. "And he is the man responsible for this act of savagery. For reasons unknown, John Harrison has just declared a one-man war on Starfleet. And under no circumstances are we to allow this man to escape Federation space. You here represent the senior command of all the vessels in the region, and in the name of those we lost, you will run this bastard down."

Pike looked up at the Admiral with mild concern.

"This is a manhunt, pure and simple, so let's get to work." Marcus continued. "Earth's perimeter sensors have not detected any warp signatures leaving the system, so we know he can't be far. You will park your ships in a blockade formation, and then deploy search vehicles and landing parties to hunt down every lead..."

Marcus's words turned to authorizing deadly force to be used on sight against Harrison faded away from Kirk's ears as he examined images from the crime scene. He examined emergency response officers helping civilians away from the debris and flames, before zooming in and moving the camera around the scene to see that Harrison had been entering a small ship. He stared at the man's image for a few seconds, thinking.

Kirk leaned over to Pike, whispering. "It doesn't add up."

"James, not now." Pike whispered back.

"It doesn't seem odd to you that he'd target an archive?" Kirk asked. "It's like bombing a library."

"Chris?" Marcus's voice rang through the room. "Everything okay there?"

"Yes, sir." Pike answered. "Mr. Kirk is just acclimating to his new position as First Officer."

"You got something to say, Kirk, say it." Marcus replied, recognizing the lie. "Tomorrow's too late."

"I'm fine, sir. My apologies." Kirk replied, all too aware of all eyes being on him.

"Spit it out, son. Don't be shy." Marcus repeated.

Kirk sighed. "Why the archive?" He asked. "All that information is public record. If he really wanted to damage Starfleet, this could just be the beginning."

"The beginning of what, Mr. Kirk?" Marcus asked.

"Sir, in the event of an attack, protocol mandates that senior command gather captains and first officers at Starfleet H.Q., right here...in this room..." Kirk trailed off, hearing a low droning noise.

"Sir, it is curious that Harrison would commandeer a jump-ship without warp capabilities-" Spock paused as the droning grew louder, all officers in the room noticing it as well.

Kirk stood up, facing the outside window, and realizing that the droning was coming from outside the boardroom. As the droning turned into the recognizable hum of a ship engine, and red lights flashed on, causing everyone to shield their eyes. But Kirk already knew what it was.

"Clear the room!" Kirk managed to yell, before the giant window smashed inward and the room was filled with green phaser blasts. Captains and first officers who were shot flew backwards and slammed against the wall, dead before they knew what hit them. Many managed to survive and throw themselves to the ground, but the deadly assault continued, spraying green flashes of death across all sides of the room. The only sounds anyone could hear were the repeated whirring of the enemy ship's guns, glass and debris smashing, and panicked screams of pain, many of which were soon silenced.

"We need an air defense team! Daystrom Conference Room!" Pike yelled into his communicator, having found some cover behind a wall.

Kirk watched in horror as the response team ran in, raising their phaser rifles but being cut down by the enemy ship's fire before they got a shot off. They flew back with screams, knocking over furniture and smashing tables. Kirk pulled himself to his feet, running across the boardroom and somehow managing to dodge the ship's onslaught, while panicking officers still ran back and forth around him. He grabbed an abandoned phaser rifle and exited the boardroom, just as the security team was setting up a small photon torpedo launcher. As Kirk entered the hallway, he moved out of the way of a few more security officers and hid behind a section of wall. He watched the ship fly back and forth across the length of the boardroom, still firing, sending shards of glass and chunks of debris falling downwards. When he was confident that he wouldn't be fired at, Kirk emerged from behind the wall, blowing out the large window in front of him and firing multiple shots at the ship, to no effect.

Inside the boardroom, Admiral Marcus had taken cover behind a pillar, wincing every time a blast burned away a piece around him. Another phaser blast threw Pike to the ground, where he lay, groaning.

Kirk continued to fire at the ship, eventually stopping when he realized that he was dong no damage. But he noticed that the engine running the ship was a turbine, sucking in air. If he could lodge something big enough in there, he could disable it. He dropped the rifle and ran back to the wall behind him, punching it in a panic, trying to open the emergency supply hatch. When it did open, he began to pull out a long section of hose.

The Starfleet senior command was being slaughtered inside the boardroom, green tracking lights finding the targets and then blowing them away. Spock was checking the pulse of a dead captain when he heard a familiar groan of pain. He turned to see Pike trying to crawl to safety, before a green tracking light appeared on his chest and a phaser blast burned into him.

The enemy ship's fire was momentarily stopped when the security team fired a small photon torpedo at the ship, which swerved away from the boardroom to dodge it. This gave Spock enough time to grab Pike and drag his body out of the line of fire, laying him down on a couch usually used for guests. Pike stared up at Spock, afraid and losing breath.

Kirk fell to his knees with the hose, wrapping it tightly around the phaser rifle he had dropped. When it was secure, he walked to the window and threw the rifle as hard as he could. Luckily, it flew exactly where he needed it too, and clattered into the ship's turbine, shattering when it entered it. But the hose stayed intact, and began to rapidly be pulled to its full length out of the wall. Eventually, it went taut, and Kirk looked back to see the whole wall around the supply hatch crack.

Kirk realized what was going to happen just as the wall cracked again, and he threw himself backwards. The entire section of the wall flew outward past him, bouncing up off of the ground and smashing what remained of the window. The force of the hose pulled it towards the ship's turbine, and it smashed into the turbine, causing the engine's mechanism to snap. This interruption blew out the back of the ship's engine, and it stopped firing, starting a spinning descent with its loss of control.

Kirk stared at the ship, his eyes meeting with Harrison's in the cockpit just as the white lights of beaming started to appear around him. Kirk was confused at this sight, and the ship spun again, but when the cockpit came around, Harrison was gone.

The now empty ship smashed into the Starfleet building on a lower level, before all of its lights went out and it plummeted downward, the threat ended with the noise of smashing metal. Kirk just stared at the wreckage, confused by what he had seen.

Back in the conference room, Pike's breath was slowing. Spock didn't know what to do, but he remained dutifully beside the dying man. As his breaths grew shallower, Pike clumsily gripped Spock's arm. Spock looked confused by this gesture, and he looked into Pike's eyes. Tears were welling in the older man's eyes, eyes that were filled with fear, before the light faded out of them, and the haggard breathing faded away.

Spock just looked at the dead man, not knowing what to do next. Kirk ran up behind him, stopping when he saw Pike's body. Kirk fell to his knees, placing his fingers to Pike's neck in search of a pulse. When there was none to be found, all of his hope was broken. Kirk broke down crying, gripping his mentor's uniform as he buried his head in his chest. Before he lost himself too much in his grief, he pulled himself up with the support of Spock's shoulder, while the Vulcan continued to neutrally look at the dead man. But inside his head, his thoughts were much more than neutral.

Kirk slowly walked back to the window, looking down at the debris left by Harrison's ship as emergency vehicles sped towards the headquarters. The sirens were barely a dull echo in his ears as he stared at the destroyed ship.

* * *

On a world consumed with wind and darkness, white lights spun around rapidly, and John Harrison appeared, standing up from his kneeling position. He surveyed the ruins that were spread out around him momentarily, before pulling a hood over his head and walking away.

His plan had begun. Now all that remained was to see how retaliation would come.

* * *

_**AN: So yeah, that's the beginning of my version of Star Trek: Into Darkness. I'll admit, there aren't many changes so far, but this has been good writing practice either way. I promise that there were some small changes that will play into the rest of this story, and some much bigger changes to come. There won't be as many severe changes to the overall story as you might expect, but so far, I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and hopefully you had fun reading it. See you next time!**_


	2. Chapter 2

Kirk sat in his apartment, the previous night's events remaining fresh in his mind. Outside of his window, emergency vehicles were removing debris from the scorched Starfleet Headquarters, the airspace around the building having been blocked off. He was sitting in silence, still contemplating what had happened, what he had seen, and wondering what would happen now. With Pike gone, he had lost the man that he looked up to the most, and also his last chance to be on the _Enterprise_ again.

"_But with the region's senior command mostly dead, what's the fleet even going to do?"_ Kirk thought.

Starfleet was currently in a state of panic, as no plan had been finalized for finding Harrison before his attack, and now the man had disappeared from Earth without a trace. Kirk had explained that he had seen Harrison beaming away, but no-one had been able to figure out where he had gone. Admiral Marcus had sent Starfleet officers out to check local beaming stations and their records. Kirk was also waiting for an answer.

His communicator beeped, and he snapped out of his thoughts, picking it up. "Yeah?" He asked into it.

"_Commander, Mr. Scott thinks that he has found Harrison's beaming records."_ Spock's voice reported. _"He has asked to see us right away."_

* * *

Kirk and Spock ran down a crowded street towards a sectioned-off area. Starfleet agents and the local law enforcement had blocked off the entrance to a Starfleet beaming station, and were currently swarming around it. The two of them glimpsed inside, seeing that it had multiple blast holes in the walls, and that bodies were being transported away. A small crowd of civilians was assembling around the building, curious about what was going on. Kirk and Spock pushed their way through to where Scotty was waiting for them, holding an electronic data pad.

"Captain!" Scotty called. "I think I figured out how the bastard got away!"

The three of them walked away from the crowd to where they could keep their conversation more private.

"What happened here?" Kirk asked.

"Well, I was in one of the teams searching the beaming stations for any suspicious activity." Scotty explained. "And when we got to this one, we found it ransacked, and every officer inside was dead. There was only one transporter still working."

"And the records were intact?" Kirk asked.

"Aye, sir." Scotty nodded. "The two latest transports showed the approximate co-ordinates of Starfleet Headquarters, and the other, well..."

"What is it, Scotty?" Kirk asked.

"You're not going to like it, sir." Scotty shook his head.

"Scotty, where is he?" Kirk asked.

"Well sir, he's...he's gone to the one place where... we just can't go." Scotty answered, holding up the electronic pad.

Kirk and Spock looked at the pad, reading the co-ordinates . They looked at each other nervously, knowing exactly where those co-ordinates lead.

Scotty was right. There was no way that they could go there.

* * *

Admiral Marcus was convening another meeting, a group of Starfleet Admirals gathered around a white table in the centre of an open, brightly lit, white room that connected to Marcus's own office. Several files were being passed around between the senior officers. Kirk and Spock ran into the room, interrupting the search party orders that Marcus was giving out.

"Admiral, sir, he's not on Earth!" Kirk exclaimed.

Marcus stopped mid-sentence, everyone in the room looking at the young Commander.

"He's on Kronos, sir." Kirk continued. "I request my command be reinstated and your permission to go after him."

Marcus paused for a second, before turning to the Admirals. "Give us a minute." He ordered.

The Admirals got up and left while Marcus walked past Kirk and Spock, leading them to his office.

"Kronos." Marcus repeated.

"Yes, sir." Kirk replied.

"So, Harrison's gone to the Klingon home world." Marcus thought out loud. "Is he defecting?"

"We're not sure, sir." Kirk answered.

"He has taken refuge in the Ketha Province, a region uninhabited for decades." Spock added.

"He's got to be hiding there, sir!" Kirk interjected. "He knows that if we even go near Klingon space, it'd be all-out war. Starfleet can't go after him, but I can. Please, sir."

Spock gave him a concerned look.

"All-out war with the Klingons is inevitable, Mr. Kirk." Marcus replied, turning away from the two Commanders to face his desk. "If you ask me, it's already begun."

He started to walk along the length of a long wooden table which was covered in small models of flight machines, starting with the Wright Brothers plane, to the early space shuttles of the twentieth century, and stopping before the model of a _Constitution_-class ship.

"Since we first learned of their existence, the Klingon Empire has conquered and occupied two planets that we know of and fired on our ships half a dozen times." Marcus continued, his eyes lingering on the last model on the table. "They are coming our way."

Marcus turned to the two Commanders. "London was not an archive." He admitted. "It was a top-secret branch of Starfleet, designated Section 31."

Kirk and Spock moved closer to his desk, confused looks on their faces.

"They were developing defense technology and training our officers to gather intelligence on the Klingons, and any other potential enemy who means to do us harm." Marcus continued. "Harrison was one of our top agents."

"Well, now he's a fugitive and I want to take him out." Kirk replied.

Spock looked between the two with concern, while Marcus just smiled. Whether it was one of pride or amusement, the Vulcan didn't know.

"Pike always said you were one of our best and brightest." Marcus nodded. "You should have heard him defend you. He's the one who talked you into joining Starfleet, wasn't he?"

Kirk nodded. "Yes, sir." He answered quietly.

"Did he ever tell you who talked him into joining?" Marcus asked.

Kirk slightly shook his head, and Marcus nodded, looking downwards.

"His death is on me." Marcus said regretfully, looking back up at Kirk. "And yours can't be."

"Sir, please. All I-" Kirk started.

"Mr. Spock, you said the province where Harrison is hiding is uninhabited?" Marcus interrupted, earning himself an annoyed look from Kirk.

"Affirmative, sir." Spock nodded.

Marcus took a moment to think, a new idea clearly formed in his head. He walked forward to his desk, tapping an electronic pad a few times. "As part of our defensive strategy, 31 developed a new photon torpedo."

A hologram image of a white torpedo appeared in front of them, its statistics also appearing in various places around it.

"Long-range and untraceable, it would be invisible to Klingon sensors." Marcus went on. "I don't want you hurt, but I want to take him out. You park on the edge of the Neutral Zone, you lock onto Harrison's position, you fire, you kill him, and you haul ass."

Kirk nodded. "Permission to reinstate Mr. Spock as my First Officer." He said, receiving a confused look from the Vulcan.

"Granted." Marcus nodded.

* * *

Starfleet's main shuttle hanger was, as usual, bustling with activity. Officers walked back and forth along the enormous building's floor while shuttles flew slowly in and out of the hanger bay door, delivering officers and supplies. Large crates were floating along, filled with all manner of supplies from food to weapons, as well as shuttles being re-fueled or repaired. Steam filled the air as Kirk walked steadily towards the shuttle that would take him up to the _Enterprise_.

"Jim!" Kirk turned from his focused walk, seeing McCoy running toward him.

"Where were you?" McCoy asked.

"For what?" Kirk asked, keeping up his fast pace.

"Your medical exam." McCoy answered, as if it was obvious. "Ten hours ago, you were in a damn firefight. Now, it's my duty as ship's-"

"I'm fine, Bones." Kirk interrupted, the both of them stopping outside of their shuttle.

"The hell you are." McCoy snapped.

Kirk shook his head. "I'm fine." He repeated, walking away and entering the shuttle.

McCoy looked after his friend with concern for a moment, before following him into the shuttle.

Spock was already inside the shuttle, and was sitting silently while staring downward, deep in thought.

"Status report, Mr. Spock." Kirk said, snapping the Vulcan back to reality.

"The _Enterprise_ should be ready for launch by the time we arrive." Spock reported.

"Good. Good." Kirk nodded noncommittally, while McCoy took a seat in the row behind them.

"Captain." Spock added. "Thank you for requesting my reinstatement."

Kirk smiled at him. "You're welcome." He replied, while McCoy held a small medical sensor to his eye from between the seat rows.

"As I am again your First officer, it is now my duty to strongly object to our mission parameters." Spock continued.

"Of course it is." Kirk nodded.

"There is no Starfleet regulation that condemns a man to die without a trial, something you and Admiral Marcus are forgetting." Spock went on. "Also, pre-emptively firing torpedoes at the Klingon home world goes against-"

"You yourself said that the area's uninhabited." Kirk pointed out. "There's only going to be one casualty. And, in case you weren't listening, our orders have nothing to do with Starfleet regulation."

"Wait a minute." McCoy broke in, leaning forward. "We're firing torpedoes at the Klingons?"

"Regulations aside, this action is morally wrong." Spock added.

"Regulations aside, pulling your ass out of a volcano was morally right." Kirk shot back. "And I didn't win any points for that."

"Whoa, Jim, calm down." McCoy warned, reading the scanner connected to the sensor.

"I'm not going to take ethics lessons from a robot!" Kirk exclaimed.

"Reverting to name-calling suggests that you are defensive, and therefore find my opinion valid." Spock pointed out.

"I wasn't asking for your opinion." Kirk replied, as McCoy attached a small glowing pad to his cheekbone. It let out a small whistling noise, and Kirk gritted his teeth. "Bones, get that thing off my face." He growled. Bones retracted the pad.

"Captain, our mission could start a war with the Klingons and it is, by its very definition, immoral." Spock said. "Perhaps you should take the requisite time to arrive at this conclusion for yourself."

"Captain Kirk." A new voice entered the conversation.

Kirk looked up to see a beautiful, tall, blonde woman standing in front of his seat row.

"Science Officer Wallace." The woman introduced herself. "I've been assigned to the _Enterprise_ by Admiral Marcus. These are my transfer orders." She held out the electronic pad she was holding towards Kirk.

Kirk didn't say anything, but continued to stare at her, a grin on his face.

"You requested an additional science officer, Captain?" Spock asked.

"I wish I had." Kirk replied, taking Wallace's pad and reading the file opened on it. "Lieutenant Carol Wallace. Doctorate in applied physics, specializing in...advanced weaponry."

"Impressive credentials." Spock noted.

"Thank you." Carol smiled.

"But redundant now that I am back aboard the _Enterprise_." Spock added.

"And yet, the more the merrier." Kirk smiled at him. "Have a seat, Doctor."

"Thank you." Carol smiled again, taking the seat between the two seated officers. Spock watched her suspiciously.

"Shuttle crew, stand by for lift-off." The shuttle pilot called back, as the thrusters fired loudly.

The shuttle flew out of the loading bay, taking off into the air and flying by multiple high-rise buildings that formed the San Francisco skyline. It then flew upwards, passing through Earth's atmosphere, heading towards the main Starfleet space dock. The enormous space station held multiple ships, but the shuttle holding Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Carol sped toward the _Enterprise_. It flew around to the loading bay of the ship's aft end, landing lightly and beginning to unload its cargo, human and technology.

* * *

"No! I'm not signing anything!" Scotty exclaimed, clearly extremely annoyed at the Starfleet representative still holding the signing pad. "Now get these bloody things off my ship! Captain!" He added, seeing Kirk enter the engineering bay.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Scott?" Kirk asked.

"Aye, sir." Scotty answered. "I was just explaining to this gentleman that I cannot authorize any weapons onboard this ship without knowing what's inside them." He explained, gesturing to one of the torpedoes that Marcus had supplied them with. Carol walked around to the other side, slowly examining the weapon.

"Mr. Scott raises yet another point that the-" Spock started.

"Report to the bridge." Kirk cut him off, handing the Vulcan his electronic pad.

"Captain." Spock nodded, taking the pad and walking away.

"Mr. Scott, I understand your concerns, but we need these torpedoes on board." Kirk continued, turning back to the engineer.

"Due respect, sir, but photon torpedoes run on fuel." Scotty explained. "Now, I cannot detect the type of fuel that's used in the compartments on these torpedoes because it's shielded. I asked for the specifications, but he said..." He trailed off, pointing with his thumb to the Starfleet man standing behind him.

"It's classified." The man said.

"It's classified." Scotty repeated. "So I said, "No specs, no signature"!"

"Captain." Sulu called from a hallway above them. "Flight check's complete. We're good to go, sir."

"Thank you, Mr. Sulu." Kirk called back.

"Yes, sir." Sulu nodded, also heading towards the bridge.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, sir, I have a warp core to prime." Scotty said, walking away from the group, yelling at his small alien friend to get off of one of the missiles.

"Report to the med bay." Kirk said quickly to McCoy, before going after Scotty.

When he finally caught up to the Scottish man and the small alien, they were outside the large warp core structure. "Scotty, I need you to approve those torpedoes." He repeated.

"Do you know what this is, Captain?" Scotty asked, pointing up at the warp core.

"I don't have time for a lecture, Scotty." Kirk replied.

"Do you know what it is?" Scotty repeated.

"It's a warp core." Kirk answered, rolling his eyes.

"It's a radioactive catastrophe waiting to happen." Scotty corrected, while the small alien looked between the two of them. "A subtle shift in magnetic output from, say, firing one or more of _six dozen_ torpedoes with an unknown payload could set off a chain reaction, which would kill every living thing on this ship. Letting those torpedoes on board the _Enterprise_ is the last straw!"

"What was the first straw?" Kirk asked.

"What was the..." Scotty trailed off in disbelief. "There are plenty of straws. How about Starfleet confiscating my transwarp equation? And now some madman's using it to hop across the galaxy! Where do you think he got it from?"

"We have our orders, Scotty!" Kirk yelled over him.

"That's what scares me." Scotty replied. "This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers."

"Sign for the torpedoes, that's an order." Kirk replied assertively.

Scotty sighed. "Right, well, you leave me no choice but to resign my duties." He said.

Kirk rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Scotty."

"You're giving me no choice, sir." Scotty replied. "I will not stand by-"

"You're not leaving me with much of a choice!" Kirk exclaimed. "Will you just make an exception and sign-"

"Do you accept my resignation or not?" Scotty asked.

"I do!" Kirk yelled, ending the argument.

Scotty paused, staring at his Captain in surprise.

"I do." Kirk repeated, more quietly. "You are relieved, Mr. Scott."

Scotty nodded rapidly, a sad smile and look appearing on his face.

Kirk sighed, looking at the ground. _"Why couldn't this whole thing have gone over easily?"_ He thought.

"Jim, for the love of God, do not use those torpedoes." Scotty warned, before handing over his engineer's pad to the captain and walking away. After a few seconds, he stopped, turning back to look at the small alien. It walked forward, handing a smaller engineer's pad to the captain.

Kirk was left standing alone in front of the core, while the words _"Attention. Warp core anti-matter containment check in three minutes." _echoed through the engineering bay.

* * *

Kirk had changed out of his dress uniform into his yellow captain's shirt, and was currently exiting Engineering, walking down a hallway towards the main elevator that would take him to the bridge.

"Captain!" He heard behind him, turning to see Uhura catching up to him. "I'm so sorry about Admiral Pike." Uhura said.

"We all are." Kirk nodded, slowing down slightly to match pace with her.

"Are you okay?" Uhura asked, clearly concerned.

"Fine, thank you, Lieutenant." Kirk answered dismissively.

The two of them entered the elevator, facing forward as the door slid closed before them. There were a few seconds of silence between them before Kirk broke it.

"Actually, Scotty just quit." He admitted. "And your boyfriend's second-guessing me every chance he gets."

Uhura just sighed, straightening her back.

Kirk noticed her change in posture, realizing his mistake. "I'm sorry, that was inappropriate." He added. "It's just that sometimes I want to rip the bangs off his head." He trailed off, thinking for a second. "You know, maybe it's me. I-"

"It's not you." Uhura added quickly.

Kirk stopped, confused, looking at her. "It's not?"

Uhura didn't answer, but something was clearly bothering her.

Kirk turned to face her completely, folding his arms. "Wait, are you guys...are you guys fighting?"

"I'd rather not talk about it, sir." Uhura answered, turning to face him.

"Oh, my God!" Kirk replied, surprised. "What is that even like?"

The doors slid open, revealing the bridge. Spock was standing in front of the door, and he looked up, standing at attention.

Uhura walked by him, holding eye contact but not saying a word. Spock turned with her, his face betraying no reaction to her clear anger.

"Your ears burning?" Kirk asked as he exited the elevator, earning a confused look from the Vulcan.

"Captain on the bridge!" Chekov's voice rang out through the large room.

"Captain." Sulu greeted him as Kirk passed the pilot.

Kirk nodded back, leaning over Chekov's console. "Mr. Chekov. You've been shadowing Mr. Scott. Are you familiar with the engineering systems of this ship?"

"Affirmative, sir." Chekov nodded.

"Good." Kirk smiled. "You're going to be working with a new Chief, but I want someone who knows Scotty's methods. Go put on a red shirt." Kirk patted the young Russian's shoulder, walking back to the captain's chair.

"Aye, Captain." Chekov nodded, a scared look on his face.

Kirk sat in his chair, taking a second to enjoy the feeling of being there again, while simultaneously regretting the circumstances that had led to it. "Retract all moorings, Mr. Sulu." He ordered.

"Yes, sir." Sulu answered, clicking a few buttons on the console before him.

Outside, the large moorings disconnected from multiple spots around the ship, retracting back to the space dock. When the ship was free of all three moorings, the Enterprise's engines fired, Sulu steering the ship backwards and turning it away from the dock, facing outward to open space. Another navigation officer took Chekov's empty seat.

"Lieutenant Uhura, open a ship-wide channel." Kirk requested, clicking the comms switch on his chair.

"_Mr. Chekov, how we looking down there?"_ Kirk's voice came through the comms near the warp core.

Chekov, having changed into his red shirt, ran over to the console, clicking a button. "All systems nominal, Captain." He reported.

"_Copy that."_

"Warp available at your command."

"_Thank you, Mr. Chekov."_

Chekov nodded, clicking the console again to close the channel, returning to the warp core.

"All right, let's ride." Kirk said.

"Yes, sir." Sulu replied, turning to his console and beginning the rapid pressing of buttons that led to the start-up sequence. When everything was ready, he grabbed main the silver lever, slowly pushing it forwards. Stars elongated on the main screen before the bridge crew, and the twin thrusters fired, sending the _Enterprise _speedinginto warp speed.

Uhura clicked a few switches above her head. "Channel open, sir." She reported.

"Attention, crew of the _Enterprise_." Kirk spoke into the comms. "As most of you know, Christopher Pike, former captain of this ship and our friend...is dead." He took a moment to collect his thoughts. "The man who killed him has fled our system and is hiding on the Klingon homeworld, somewhere he believes we are unwilling to go."

All across the ship, the crew stopped their duties to listen to their captain. The red-shirted engineers stood around as steam wafted through the air, McCoy and his blue-shirted medical team paused from preparing the med bay. Carol was walking across the bay where the torpedoes were being stored before being loaded, only half-listening.

"We are on our way there now." Kirk continued. "Per Admiral Marcus, it is our essential that our presence goes undetected. Tensions between the federation and the Klingon Empire have been high, and any provocation could lead to an all-out war."

Kirk paused before continuing. The crew around him in the bridge turned, waiting for him to finish his mission briefing. Kirk swivelled his chair to face Spock, and after a few seconds of silence between the two of them, Spock's neutral look repeating his point of view, Kirk turned back forward. He hated when Spock was right, but he was right.

"I will personally lead a landing party to an abandoned city on the surface of Kronos, where we will capture the fugitive, John Harrison, and return him to Earth so he can face judgement for his actions." Kirk said. "All right, let's go get this son of a bitch. Kirk out."

Spock stood up, walking to stand at Kirk's side. "Captain, I believe that you have made the right decision." He said. "If I can be of assistance, I would be happy to accompany you on the away team."

Kirk looked up at the Vulcan. "You? Happy?" He asked.

"I was simply attempting to use your vernacular to convey an idea." Spock replied.

Kirk smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Spock."

* * *

Down in a lower bay of the _Enterprise_, the torpedoes were being moved via cranes into their weapon ports. Carol was examining one of them as it was wheeled away with a small scanner. When it moved past her, she turned with it, and noticed that Spock was now standing in the bay, watching her.

"Mr. Spock. You startled me." She said, again putting on her smile.

Spock didn't react to it. "What are you doing, Doctor?" He asked.

"Verifying that the torpedo's internal-" Carol started to answer.

"You misunderstand." Spock interrupted. "What are you doing aboard this ship? There is no record of you being assigned to the _Enterprise_."

"Oh, really?" Carol laughed a little. "That must be some sort of mistake."

"My conclusion as well, Dr. Marcus." Spock said.

Carol's smile faded.

"Except that you have lied about your identity." Spock continued. "Wallace is the surname of your mother. I can only assume that the Admiral is your father."

Carol walked a few steps towards the Vulcan. "Mr. Spock." She said, now speaking more quietly and slightly more nervously, all pretense of her cover gone. "I'm aware that I have no right to ask this of you. But please, he cannot know that I'm here-"

Before she could continue, the entire ship jolted with an electronic groan, sending every crew member scrambling unexpectedly, many of the bridge crew falling forward out of their seats. The _Enterprise_ had dropped out of warp, and was now stopping in space, having emerged not quite near the neutral zone between Federation and Klingon space.

"Engineering manually dropped us out of warp, sir." Sulu reported, once the bridge crew had recovered.

Kirk hit the comms button on the console he had braced himself on. "Mr. Chekov, did you break my ship?" He called into it.

"Sorry, Captain, I don't know what happened." Chekov reported quickly, running through the engineering deck while steam billowed around and red lights flashed. "The core overheated, I had to activate the emergency stop. It must be a coolant leak, but I need time to find it. Sorry again, Captain."

"Damn it." Kirk muttered. "Mr. Sulu, time to our destination?"

"Twenty minutes, sir." The pilot answered. "But that's twenty minutes in enemy space we weren't counting on."

"All right. We better hop to it." Kirk nodded, turning around and noticing an absence. "Where's Spock?"

"Here, Captain." Spock answered, having just exited the elevator, and walked to stand next to Uhura.

"You're coming with me to Kronos." Kirk said. "Lieutenant, how's your Klingon?"

"It's rusty, but it's good." Uhura answered.

"Good. You're coming too." Kirk said, before walking closer to them and speaking more quietly. "This isn't going to be a problem, is it? You two working together?"

"Absolutely not." Uhura answered, a hint of anger in her voice, before walking away.

Spock turned to his captain with a confused look. "Unclear." He answered, before following Uhura away.

"I'll meet you in the shuttle bay." Kirk said, shaking his head as he realized that maybe this wasn't the best idea.

"Jim, you're not actually going down there, are you?" McCoy asked, approaching his friend. "You don't rob a bank when the getaway car has a flat tire."

Kirk clicked the comms button on his chair. "I'm sure engineering will have us all patched up by the time we get back." He replied. "Isn't that right, Mr. Chekov?"

Chekov paused, thinking for a second. "Yes, Captain." He answered, not entirely sure. "I'll do my best, sir."

Kirk smiled and nodded to McCoy, before turning to his pilot. "Mr. Sulu, you have the conn. Once we're en route, I want you to transmit a targeted comm burst to Harrison's location. You tell him you have a bunch of really big torpedoes pointed at his head and if he doesn't play nice, you're not afraid to use them."

Sulu didn't reply, but looked nervously away from Kirk's eyes.

"Is that a problem?" Kirk asked.

"No, sir." Sulu answered. "I've just never sat in the chair before."

"You're going to do great." Kirk re-assured him, turning to exit the bridge.

"Jim! Wait!" McCoy stopped him. "You just sat that man down at a high-stakes poker game with no cards and told him to bluff. Now, Sulu's a good man, but he's no captain."

"For the next two hours, he is." Kirk replied. "And enough with the metaphors, all right? That's an order." He turned away from the doctor, calling back. "Mr. Sulu, make sure that K'normian ship is ready to fly."

Sulu nodded, slowly standing up and walking towards the captain's chair, the rest of the bridge crew watching him. Sulu sat tentatively, but relaxed into the seat, his doubts erased as he settled in. He felt more confident in seconds, and a new persona seemed to emerge when he spoke.

"Acting Captain Sulu to Shuttle Bay Two." Sulu said into the chair's comm. "Please have the trade ship we confiscated during the Mudd incident last month fueled and flight ready. Captain Kirk is en route to you now."

About ten minutes later, the away team made their way into the shuttle bay, having changed into completely black clothes. Kirk was holding a small black case containing phaser pistols, but not the Federation's design. Two more crew members were waiting outside of the K'normian shuttle they were deploying in.

"Lieutenants, lose the red shirts." Kirk ordered as he, Spock and Uhura reached the shuttle. Kirk handed the two a change of similarly black clothing. "You are K'normian arms dealers. Put those on."

"Sir?" One of the lieutenants asked, confused.

"Look, if this thing goes south, there can be nothing tying us to Starfleet." Kirk explained. "Unless, of course, you want a war, Mr. Hendorff."

"No, sir." Hendorff and the other lieutenant answered simultaneously.

"Good. Me, neither." Kirk replied, walking past them and into the shuttle.

The round shuttle took off out of the shuttle bay door, flying away from the _Enterprise_ and towards Kronos. As the planet came more into view, Kirk noticed that a moon had collided with it, with huge brown fragments floating in space.

"I am detecting a single life form in the Ketha Province." Spock reported. "Given the information provided by Mr. Scott, this is most likely John Harrison."

"Mr. Sulu, I think we found our man." Kirk said into the shuttle's comm. "You let him know you mean business."

* * *

"Aye, Captain." Sulu replied.

Sulu took a deep breath, preparing himself. He clicked a few buttons on the chair, preparing the comm for a targeted burst. When it was set properly, he put an extra layer of threat and menace into his voice. Or, at least, as much as he could manage.

"Attention, John Harrison." He said into the comm. "This is Captain Hikaru Sulu of the _U.S.S. Enterprise_. A shuttle of highly trained officers is on its way to your location. If you do not surrender to them immediately, I will unleash the entire payload of advanced, long-range torpedoes currently locked onto your location."

As he spoke, the torpedoes were loaded into the weapons bays, supervisors watching them as they clicked into place. All across a length of the ship's hull, small ports opened, readying the torpedoes for launch.

"You have two minutes to confirm your compliance. Refusal to do so will result in your obliteration." Sulu continued. "If you test me, you will fail." He clicked the console, ending the transmission and letting out a small breath.

"Mr. Sulu, remind me never to piss you off." McCoy said, joking but still sounding slightly nervous.

Sulu just smiled proudly.

* * *

**KRONOS**

* * *

The round K'normian shuttle sped lower into the atmosphere of the Klingon homeworld. It had reached the Ketha Province, and now ancient ruins were visible above the clouds, buildings long abandoned by the planet's inhabitants.

"We will arrive at Harrison's location in three minutes, Captain." Spock reported. "It is unlikely that he will come willingly. I calculate the odds of him attempting to kill us at 91.6%."

"Fantastic." Kirk replied.

Uhura sighed, realizing a second after that it was louder than she had meant.

"Is something the matter, Lieutenant?" Kirk asked.

"No, Captain. Nerves, I suppose." Uhura answered, not entirely truthfully.

"Lieutenant , if it has anything to do with your annoyance with me, I wish to resolve it now." Spock said, giving his best attempt at a romantic gesture. "Given the odds being firmly against us-"

"Spock, it would be better if we discussed this in private-" Uhura started.

"I merely think that given the threat that Harrison poses, with the additional risk of a Klingon incursion-" Spock continued.

"Guys-" Kirk tried to break in. "Are we really doing this now-"

"Captain, just two seconds, okay?" Uhura asked.

"Okay." Kirk nodded, focusing on flying the shuttle.

"Look, Spock you know that I've been concerned about you for a while." Uhura said. "And about...about us. At that volcano, did you think about what it would do to me if you died? Did you feel anything? Did you care?" She paused, leaving the shuttle in momentary silence. "And I'm not the only one who's upset with you. The Captain is, too."

"No, no, no." Kirk objected. "Don't drag me into this." He turned back forward, the sun shining in his face, before he turned to Spock. "She is right." He added.

"Your suggestion that I do not care about dying is incorrect." Spock said quietly. "A sentient being's optimal chance at maximizing their utility is a long and prosperous life."

Uhura sighed. "Great."

"Not exactly poetry, Spock." Kirk pointed out.

"You misunderstand." Spock continued. "It is true that I chose not to feel anything upon realizing that my own life was ending."

Kirk and Uhura stopped their comments, listening closely.

"But later, as Admiral Pike was dying, I looked into his eyes, and I could see various emotions. Anger, confusion, loneliness, fear." Spock reflected. "I had experienced these feelings before, multiplied exponentially on the day that my planet was destroyed. Such a feeling is something I choose never to experience again, so I felt justified in my choice while inside the volcano, a choice which I made purely to experience a peaceful passing."

Kirk and Uhura didn't have a response, and all of their complaints had been forgotten.

"Nyota, you mistake my choice not to feel as a reflection of my not caring." Spock continued. "Well, I assure you, the truth is precisely the opposite."

Uhura leaned back against her seat, and smiled in relief.

Kirk turned to say something, but suddenly, the entire ship jolted with the sound of a phaser blast. The officers inside winced with the impact, and the shield alarm started blaring.

"What the hell was that?" Kirk asked.

* * *

Back on the _Enterprise_, the shuttle's signal disappeared from their sensors.

"What happened? Where's their signal?" Sulu asked in panic.

"It cut out. I'm working to get it back." The acting communications officer answered.

* * *

The K'normian shuttle was undamaged, but it was now being pursued by a Klingon shuttle, and the two ships weaved through the ruins that jutted into the sky.

"We are being pursued by a D-4 class Klingon vessel." Spock reported.

"I thought this section was abandoned!" Kirk exclaimed.

"It must be a random patrol." Uhura suggested.

"Hold on!" Kirk yelled, twisting the steering nozzle to the side and downward, causing the Lieutenants to wince at the sudden force as the shuttle pitched downward. But the Klingon ship remained in pursuit.

"This ship has no offensive capabilities." Spock warned.

"It's got us." Kirk replied. "Give me all six fuel cells."

"Aye, Captain." Spock replied, and clicked a number of buttons.

The steering display in front of Kirk lit up, and the captain gained full control over the steering of the shuttle. He twisted the controls suddenly, now able to maneuver the ship deep into the ruins, weaving between the dead, old buildings. The Klingon ship stayed on their tail, continuing to fire green bursts, one of them igniting an explosion that burned around the shuttle. The flames and force of the blast rocked the shuttle again, Kirk cursing under his breath. No matter how many complicated his moves, the pursuing shuttle kept up with them.

"They're closing fast, bearing 285!" Uhura reported, watching her scanner.

Through the front viewport, Kirk could see a narrow passage between the ruins. His scanner gave him measurements, and the possibilities of it being an escape route. "All right, there! There! We can lose them there." Kirk yelled, dodging another Klingon blast.

"If you are suggesting that we utilize the passage between the approaching structures, this ship will not fit." Spock warned.

"We'll fit." Kirk replied.

"Captain, we will not fit." Spock repeated.

"We'll fit, we'll fit!" Kirk yelled, trying to convince himself just as much as the other members of the away team.

He twisted the control nozzle, turning the shuttle on its side. The ship just fit into the gap, while the Klingon ship stopped its pursuit before it smashed into the structures. Inside the gap, the K'normian shuttle bounced off either side of the tight space, barely fitting. The jarring, sparking impacts had the away team gripping their seats tighter than they thought possible. Just when it seemed like the space was getting too tight, they emerged from the gap, the flight smoothing out.

"I told you we'd fit." Kirk said to Spock, still breathing heavily.

"I am not sure that qualifies." Spock replied.

"Any sign of them?" Kirk asked Uhura.

"No, which worries me." Uhura answered, still watching her scanner.

"We lost them!" Kirk exclaimed happily.

"Or they're jamming our scanners." Uhura countered.

"Or, we lost them." Kirk repeated.

The shuttle took a left turn through the ruins, seemingly free of their pursuers. But, as it emerged into a large clearing, it slowed to a stop, as three Klingon patrol ships shone spotlights onto it. They were surrounded, with nowhere to go. Angry Klingon yells were sent out through their ships' comms, and everyone inside the K'normian shuttle tensed. Kirk sighed, trying to think of a way out of the situation.

"They're ordering us to land." Uhura translated. When she got no response, she continued. "Captain, they're going to want to know why we're here. And they're going to torture us, question us...and then they're going to kill us."

Kirk thought for a moment. "So we come out shooting." He suggested.

Uhura stood up from her seat, walking over to stand over her Captain. "We're outnumbered, outgunned." She pointed out. "There's no way we survive if we attack first."

Kirk nodded, looking downward, clearly still trying to figure out another way.

"You brought me here because I speak Klingon." Uhura continued. "So, let me speak Klingon."

Kirk nodded, while Spock looked away from the conversation with a look of worry. Kirk set the shuttle down slowly in the midst of an open space in the ruins, two of the Klingon shuttles following closely and landing around it. When they landed, the K'normian shuttle's door opened, Uhura waiting alone in the doorway.

Uhura exited the shuttle, walking towards one of the Klingon ships, but only after she took several deep breaths, unsuccessfully trying to eliminate her worry. It was at times like these that she wished that she could suppress emotion like Spock. As she stepped onto the stone ground, the harsh winds of Kronos blew through her hair, ash flying around the eroded, unidentifiable structures and ripped flags spread around them. The crew of one of the Klingon ships stood in formation at the top of a small staircase, holding rifles, their armoured masks identical and intimidating.

"This isn't going to work." Kirk muttered from inside the shuttle, while he and the rest of the away team watched Uhura approach the Klingons.

"It is our only logical option." Spock replied. "And, as undesirable as it is, if you interrupt her now, you will incur the wrath of the Klingons, an option that would be better avoided."

As Uhura continued her slow walk towards the Klingons, one soldier walked from the back of the group, stopping at the front of them. He was clearly the leader.

Uhura stopped, still leaving a large space between her and the Klingons. _"I am here to help you."_ She said, speaking in the guttural Klingon tongue.

The Klingon leader walked down the steps, closing the gap between them.

Kirk, feeling that something was going to go wrong, ran from the shuttle's cockpit to its main bay, opening the small case that he'd brought with him. He pulled out the phaser pistols, passing them to the two Lieutenants, who nodded in thanks, and dropped one phaser in front of Spock while preparing his own. Spock looked at the gun, slowly placing a hand over it. Just in case.

The Klingon leader has stopped in front of Uhura, but didn't make another move.

"_With respect."_ Uhura continued. _"There is a criminal hiding in these ruins. He has killed many of our people."_

There was silence between the two for a moment, the only noises coming from the wind and the Klingon shuttle hovering over them, spotlights facing down. The Klingon leader slowly reached up and removed his helmet, revealing his dark skin, with an angular nose and a head covered in traditional piercings. His piercing blue eyes stared forward at the much shorter woman.

"_Why should I care about a human killing other humans?"_ He growled back.

Uhura paused for a moment to come up with an answer. _"Because you care about honor."_ She eventually answered. _"And this man has none. You and your people are in danger."_

The Klingon captain stared at her for a moment, again letting the whistling of the wind fill the silence. But suddenly, he lunged forward, grabbing Uhura's face. Inside the K'normian shuttle, Kirk began to panic. Spock tightened his grip on his phaser. The Klingon leader slowly drew a long knife from his boot.

Before he could use it, there was a rapid whirring, and red phaser blasts flew through the air, cutting into his Klingon crew members. Kirk and the Klingon leader looked around, confused. At the far end of the ruin, a man was moving rapidly, covered in head to toe in black, a phaser rifle in one hand, which was still firing red bursts across the abandoned structures. In the other hand, he was holding up what looked like a small cannon.

Before the Klingon captain could kill her, Uhura grabbed a knife from his other boot, stabbing it into his leg while Klingon soldiers drew weapons and ran towards the attacking man. Kirk and the away team ran out of the shuttle, Kirk firing forward with his phaser, a blue burst stunning the Klingon leader.

The air was now filled with mechanical whirring, red, blue and green phaser blasts, and the sound of Klingon yells. The man and Kirk's crew continued firing, phaser bursts stunning and burning holes into Klingon torsos. Every one of the combatants ducked for cover between the maze-like ruins, phasers blasting chunks away from the ancient stone.

The man weaved back and forth along his long stone walkway, firing an enormous red phaser blast from his cannon into the sky. It collided with the still-flying Klingon ship, causing it to spiral out of control and crash into the ruins.

Kirk had seemingly found a clear spot, and he advanced slowly. A Klingon soldier appeared out of nowhere, swinging an enormous axe at his head. Kirk managed to duck down before he was decapitated, and smashed his phaser across the Klingon's helmet. But all that that resulted in was a metal ping and pain in his hand. The Klingon let out an annoyed growl and kept advancing on the captain, swinging the axe again and again, while Kirk dodged again and again, sparks flying from where the weapon clashed with stone.

Spock moved cautiously through the maze of ruins, firing stun bolts into every Klingon he encountered. He was trying to find the other members of the away team, but they had all been separated in the initial assault.

Back up on the walkway, the man in black kept spinning and firing his weapons rapidly, moving with lightning speed to dodge green blasts that exploded rock around him. One Klingon tried to sneak up behind him, but the man spun around, slamming his cannon into the Klingon's legs and sending it flying.

Uhura was running right through the centre of the battle, bolts of multiple colours flying all around her. She tried desperately to find cover, as the man continued to kill Klingons all around her.

The Klingon that Kirk was fighting eventually got the upper hand, kicking the smaller man to the ground. As the alien raised his axe, Kirk finally had a moment to fire stun blasts into its chest, sending the Klingon sprawling to the ground. Kirk found his feet again, raising his phaser to aim at the man on the walkway, who was firing a blast out of his cannon, destroying another of the Klingon patrol shuttles. Before Kirk could fire, another Klingon tackled him to the ground. The Klingon started to slam the captain against the ground repeatedly, yelling in their growling language.

The man in black was unstoppable, and even more Klingon ships flew into the vicinity, dropping down more teams of soldiers from their bays. The man just fired continuous blasts from his rifle and cannon, knocking ships out of the sky and cutting down Klingon soldiers as they ran towards him, none of them even getting a chance to properly aim.

Kirk managed to break the grip that the Klingon had on him, firing blue blasts into his chest, but another soldier appeared, roaring and slamming the captain across the face with his rifle, the impact sending Kirk falling to the ground. The Klingon stood over him and snarled, raising his rifle to Kirk's head. Before the Klingon could fire, the man in black leaned over and fired a cannon blast down the row of ruins.

The bottom half of the Klingon soldier fell next to Kirk, and he turned in shock, staring at the man in black, who hadn't stopped his vicious onslaught. He still hadn't even been touched. Uhura and Spock reached their captain at the same time, both of them helping him behind a wall where the man's fire wouldn't hit them, as Klingon soldiers continued their rapidly failing advance on the black-clad warrior. Spock managed to run out as the final Klingon shuttle was shot down, and he retrieved a Klingon rifle, carrying it back over to the away team. Kirk slowly leaned out, watching the man in black.

The man continued his brutal destruction of the Klingon soldiers, firing long cannon blasts and killing them five at a time, while using his rifle to dispatch stragglers. He crossed arms, spun around to avoid incoming fire, all seemingly without breaking a sweat. The Klingons were starting to get to close now, so as he fired several rounds into a nearby enemy's chest, the man shrugged off the cannon, sending it clattering onto the walkway. He pulled down the coverings over his face, revealing the angry glare of John Harrison.

Kirk was shocked. Clearly Harrison was skilled to be as important of an agent in Starfleet as Marcus had shown him, but what he had seen the man do simply seemed impossible.

Harrison ran forward, jumping off of the walkway. But he flew through the air like nothing that Kirk had ever seen, shooting down another Klingon before he landed. He landed on his knees, pushing himself up on his feet, and threw a long knife into a Klingon's throat. Before the other Klingons could react, he threw his rifle down and lunged forward, pulling the knife out of the Klingon and slicing through the few alien soldiers that were left with brutal efficiency. Harrison pulled out another knife, using all four of his limbs in succession to kill every last one of the patrol members. The last Klingon fired a shot from his rifle, but Harrison moved his head to the side, the blast missing him, and threw one of the blades. It spun through the air and stabbed into the Klingon's throat. The alien dropped, and the battleground ruins suddenly grew much quieter. Harrison retrieved his abandoned rifle and raised it, advancing on the remaining members of the Starfleet away team.

Spock slowly rose to his feet from his crouch, raising the Klingon weapon. "Stand down." He ordered.

"How many torpedoes?" Harrison demanded, pulling the black hood off of his head, his long black hair hanging scraggily over his face.

"Stand down!" Spock repeated.

Harrison didn't reply, but simply raised his rifle and fired, blasting the Klingon weapon out of Spock's hands. "The torpedoes, the weapons you threatened me with in your message." Harrison demanded again. "How many are there?"

Spock gave him a confused look, a mixed result of the Harrison's curiosity about the weapons, and why the man hadn't simply killed him.

Kirk just stared angrily up at Harrison, silently refusing to answer.

"Seventy-two." Spock said.

Harrison looked up at the Vulcan, his expression breaking from anger to shock for just a moment before it turned neutral, and he slowly looked back down at Kirk, who was still staring at him with pure hatred.

"I surrender." Harrison said, dropping his rifle to the ground.

Spock picked up the weapon, raising it at its previous owner. Kirk slowly pulled himself to his feet, groaning, and stood face-to-face with the fugitive that he had literally chased into hell.

"On behalf of Christopher Pike, my friend, I accept your surrender." He hissed.

Kirk turned away for a moment, and it seemed that the battle was over. But Kirk yelled angrily, turning and punching Harrison across the face. He didn't stop after just one, and threw blow after blow against the criminal's face from both sides, but Harrison barely reacted, certainly not with pain. Kirk continued to beat the man, punching him in the gut, and grabbing his head, punching downward with all of his strength, but Harrison didn't even flinch. Uhura and Spock watched in confusion, while Kirk's frustration at being unable to hurt the man only caused him to attack more.

"Captain!" Uhura yelled.

Kirk punched Harrison one last time before leaning over, now exhausted. As he breathed heavily, slowly steadying himself, Harrison stared into his eyes with the same neutral expression.

"Captain." Harrison hissed mockingly.

Kirk looked like he wanted to restart his beating, but he instead took a deep breath, turning away from Harrison and walking between Uhura and Spock. "Cuff him." He spat.

As Kirk walked back towards the K'normian shuttle, Harrison stared after him.

* * *

_**So, there's Chapter 2! Again, not too many changes, just subtle little changes her and there, but the big stuff's coming in the next few. I've got some positive reactions to this story so far, so hopefully you'll all enjoy this chapter as well!**_


	3. Chapter 3

Once the other two Lieutenants on Kronos had been recovered, the K'normian shuttle had arrived back at the _Enterprise_ relatively safely, their prisoner remaining silent throughout the entire flight. When they docked, Harrison was led by a five-man security team towards the brig, the away team behind them. As the armed escort walked by Carol, she stared at Harrison with a shocked expression.

Kirk pulled out his communicator. "_Bones, meet me in the brig_." He requested.

"_Be right there_." The doctor's reply crackled.

"Lieutenant." Kirk stopped, turning to Uhura. "Contact Starfleet, let them know that we have Harrison in custody, and that we'll be on our way once the warp core is repaired."

"Yes, sir." Uhura nodded, and Kirk turned, heading for the brig.

Uhura turned around to face Spock, who had stopped along with the captain and the lieutenant. She walked a few steps toward him slowly and leaned up on her tiptoes, kissing him. Spock closed his eyes and kissed her back, hoping that this meant that he was forgiven. After a few seconds, Uhura broke the kiss, leaning back down and smiling up at him, before walking away.

Spock turned to look after her, admittedly still a little confused.

* * *

"Why the hell did he surrender?" McCoy asked, as he and Kirk walked down the hallway leading to the brig, Spock following behind them.

"I don't know." Kirk answered. "But he just took out a squad of Klingons single-handedly, and I want to know how."

"Well, I certainly feel better about holding him behind a glass wall now." McCoy growled.

"He seemed to have no reason to engage us." Spock noted. "His interest in the torpedoes is most likely connected to that."

"All the more for us to ask, Mr. Spock." Kirk replied, as the three of them entered the brig.

Harrison was pacing back and forth in one of the large rooms, looking at them through the extremely reinforced glass wall. They had taken his long coat and multiple layers from him, leaving the man in just his pants and a black Starfleet shirt. McCoy walked up to the glass wall, grabbing a small metal object attached to it and pulling it upwards. After he clicked a switch it, it opened, leaving a small hole in the glass.

"Put your arm through the hole, I'm going to take a blood sample." McCoy told Harrison.

Harrison didn't reply, but he pulled his sleeve up, sticking his arm out through the hole. When McCoy stuck his white syringe into his arm, Harrison didn't even flinch.

As the syringe's small chamber slowly filled with his blood, Harrison finally spoke. "Why aren't we moving, Captain?" He asked Kirk, who didn't reply. "An unexpected malfunction, perhaps in your warp core, which has conveniently stranded you on the edge of Klingon space?" Harrison asked.

McCoy looked up from Harrison's arm. "How the hell do you know that?" He asked, surprised.

"Bones." Kirk warned, and the doctor didn't continue.

"I think you'd find my insight valuable, Captain." Harrison added.

McCoy took out the filled syringe and moved the metal hole downward again after Harrison had retracted his arm, and turned to look at the captain. "We good?" he asked.

"Yeah." Kirk nodded. "Let me know what you find." The three of turned away from the cell, McCoy heading for the med bay, while Kirk and Spock walked back the way they came.

"Ignore me and you will get everyone on this ship killed." Harrison called after them.

Kirk and Spock stopped walking. Kirk stared ahead, trying to control the rage that was Harrison causing him to feel.

"Captain, I believe that he will only attempt to manipulate you." Spock said quietly, looking between the two of them and noting Kirk's anger. "I would not recommend engaging the prisoner further."

"Give me a minute." Kirk replied, his voice slightly above a whisper.

Spock hesitated for a minute before following the order, and he walked away.

Kirk turned back towards the cell, approaching it with the anger very clear on his face. "Let me explain what's happening here." He snapped. "You are a criminal. I watched you murder innocent men and women, and I was authorized to end you!"

The anger built the more that Kirk spoke, his voice steadily rising, but Harrison gave no reaction.

"And the only reason why you are still alive is because I am allowing it." Kirk continued. "So shut your mouth!"

Harrison sighed. "Oh, Captain, are you going to punch me again, over and over until your arm weakens?" He asked mockingly. "Clearly you want to, so tell me, why did you allow me to live?"

"We all make mistakes." Kirk hissed.

"No." Harrison shook his head. "I surrendered to you because, despite your attempt to convince me otherwise, you seem to have a conscience, Mr. Kirk. If you did not, then it would be impossible for me to convince you of the truth. Two-three, one-seven, four-six, one-one. Coordinates not far from Earth. If you want to know why I did what I did, go and take a look."

"Give me one reason why I should listen to you." Kirk replied.

"I can give you seventy-two." Harrison said. "And they're on board your ship, Captain. They have been all along. I suggest you open one up."

Kirk's face no longer showed anger, but had now gone to an expression that Spock usually associated with a bad idea.

* * *

**EARTH**

**SAN FRANCISCO**

* * *

San Francisco's night life was as vibrant as usual, neon lights keeping the city awake even as many slept. Multiple clubs were pounding loud music through the ears, and other hearing functions, of many humans and aliens, all socializing in various ways. Two of these patrons were Scotty and his small alien friend, who were conversing over drinks. The conversation was mostly one-sided, with Scotty speaking loudly over the music.

"You know what really bothers me, though?" Scotty was asking. "It's the modifications, you know, the enhancements. Right? And then like that, I'm off the ship!" He exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Just for trying to do what's right? And what did you do, anyway? You just stood there like an oyster, looking at me!"

As usual, the small alien gave no response.

Scotty's communicator beeped. "What?" He asked into it, clearly annoyed.

"_Scotty, it's Kirk."_ The captain's voice crackled.

"Oh, well now!" Scotty exclaimed. "If it isn't James Tiberius Perfect Hair!Did you hear that? I called him Perfect Hair."

Kirk rolled his eyes on the other end. _"Where are you?"_ He asked, hearing the music in the background.

"Where are you_?"_ Scotty replied, his words beginning to slightly slur.

"_Are you drunk?"_ Kirk asked.

"What I do in my private time is my business, Jimbo." Scotty answered, taking a drink from his glass.

"_I need you to help me out with something. Will you jot these coordinates down?"_ Kirk asked. _"Twenty-three, seventeen, forty-six, eleven."_

Scotty didn't reply.

"_Are you writing?"_

"What, you don't think that I can remember four numbers?" Scotty asked indignantly. "Ye of little faith...what was the third one?"

"_Forty-six."_ Kirk answered. _"I don't know exactly what you're looking for, but...I have a feeling you'll know it when you see it. You may have been right about those torpedoes."_

Scotty was surprised. "I will consider that an apology." He replied. "And I will consider that apology."

"_You are the one that quit."_ Kirk pointed out, smiling on the other end of their conversation.

"You made me quit!" Scotty yelled, closing the communicator.

* * *

"Mr. Scott?" Kirk asked into his communicator a few times, before sighing in annoyance and walking away.

* * *

Scotty downed another shot, wincing. "The nerve of that guy!" He exclaimed. "I am not doing that man any favours."

His alien friend just stared silently at him.

"No!" Scotty said to him, but after a few seconds realized that no matter what his little friend said, or didn't say, he knew what was right. "All right, fine! I'll do it!"

* * *

"Are you out of your corn-fed mind?" McCoy asked. "You're not actually going to listen to this guy?"

He, Kirk and Spock were standing back on the _Enterprise's_ bridge, near the main viewport. Kirk had just relayed what he had learned from his conversation with Harrison, and his crew members were reacting as he had expected them to. But Kirk just absorbed their objections, because the more he thought about what Harrison had told him, the less that their mission made sense.

"He killed Pike, he almost killed you, and now you think it's a good idea to just pop open a torpedo because he dared you to?" McCoy continued.

"Why did he save our lives, Bones?" Kirk asked.

"The Doctor does have a point, Captain." Spock said.

"Don't agree with me, Spock. It makes me very uncomfortable." McCoy replied, turning to look out of the viewport.

"Perhaps you, too, should learn to govern your emotions, Doctor." Spock suggested. "In this situation, logic dictates-"

"Logic?" McCoy cut him off, incredulous. "Oh my God, there's a maniac trying to make us blow up our own damn ship and-"

"That's not it." Kirk interrupted. "I don't know why he surrendered, but that's not it." He walked away from the small circle they had created, past Spock, who had a thoughtful look on his face. "Look, we're going to open a torpedo. The question is how."

"But, Jim, without Mr. Scott onboard, who exactly is qualified to just open a four-ton stick of dynamite?" McCoy asked.

"The Admiral's daughter appeared to have interest in the torpedoes, and she is a weapons specialist. Perhaps she could be of some use." Spock suggested, while McCoy turned to him in confusion.

"What Admiral's daughter?" Kirk asked, also in confusion, as he turned back to the Vulcan.

"Carol Marcus." Spock answered. "Your new science officer concealed her identity to board the ship."

"When were you going to tell me that?" Kirk asked, surprised.

"When it became relevant." Spock answered, with a hint of victory in his voice. "As it just did."

* * *

Eventually, Kirk had managed to find Carol, and was now walking with her quickly down one of the engineering bay's many hallways. She clearly had an idea once he explained that they needed to open the torpedo, but he didn't know what it was. But he knew why she seemed eager to get away from him. The situation was certainly awkward.

"Are the torpedoes still in the weapons bay?" Carol asked.

"Loaded and ready to fire. What are they?" Kirk asked.

"I don't know." Carol answered, speaking quickly. "That's why I forged my transfer onto your ship, to find out why." She stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I do apologize for that, by the way." She added. "If I've caused you any problems, I am sorry. I'm Carol Marcus."

"James Kirk." He replied, holding out a hand.

"Torpedoes." She reminded him, shaking his hand and continuing down the hallway.

* * *

"My father gave me access to every program he oversaw, and then I heard he was developing these prototype torpedoes." Carol explained, as she and Kirk entered the shuttle bay. "When I went to ask him about them, he wouldn't even see me. That's when I discovered that the torpedoes had disappeared from all official records." She paused in the entrance to a shuttle.

"And then he gave them to me." Kirk said.

"You're much cleverer than your reputation suggests, Captain Kirk." Carol nodded, turning and entering the shuttle.

"I have a reputation?" Kirk asked, following her.

"Yes you do." Carol answered, starting the shuttle's launch sequence. "I'm a friend of Christine Chapel's."

Kirk paused for a moment before answering. "Christine, yes. How is she?"

"She transferred to the outer frontier to be a nurse." Carol answered. "She's much happier now."

"That's good." Kirk nodded.

"You have no idea who I'm talking about, do you?" Carol asked.

Kirk opened his mouth to say something, but closed it, looking down.

"Don't worry, Captain." Carol added. "I rarely let reputations affect my own opinions. Unless they're accurate."

Kirk nodded. "What are we doing here?" He asked.

"Is this shuttle prepped to fly?" Carol asked.

"Of course it is." Kirk answered.

"Would you please turn around?"

"Why?"

"Just turn around." Carol replied, pulling a black suit out of a box.

Kirk nodded, understanding what she meant, and turned away.

"It's too dangerous to try to open one of these torpedoes on the _Enterprise_." Carol explained as she changed out of her blue Starfleet uniform. "But there is a nearby planetoid, it would be safe to open it there."

"Will you need any help with that?" Kirk asked, working against every thought that was telling him to turn around.

"Yes, someone else will be necessary, if it operates as I expect it to." Carol answered. "Who do you recommend?"

"I think that Mr. Spock is currently the most qualified." Kirk answered. "Will he be all right?"

"We'll certainly find out." Carol replied, walking past him towards the shuttle's cockpit, now wearing a suit more equipped for an outside environment than the regular Starfleet attire. "Could you send him down, and have one of the torpedoes moved here?"

"I'll get right on it." Kirk answered, exiting the shuttle.

* * *

Later, once the shuttle had departed the Enterprise with all of its cargo, and was heading towards the planetoid Carol had suggested, Kirk made his way back to the bridge.

"Captain on the bridge!" Sulu called out.

"Mr. Sulu, have Doctor Marcus and Mr. Spock landed on the planetoid yet?" Kirk asked the pilot.

"Yes, sir. They're moving the torpedo into position now." Sulu answered.

"Good." Kirk nodded. "Any activity from the Klingons?"

"Not yet." Sulu replied. "But if we're stuck here any longer, they will find us."

"Lieutenant Uhura, did you let Starfleet know that we have Harrison in custody?' Kirk asked.

"Yes, sir. No response yet." Uhura answered.

Kirk turned to her, about to ask another question, but he was interrupted by the sound of Chekov's voice coming through the comms.

"_Engineering to bridge. Hello, Captain, can you hear me?"_

"Mr. Chekov, give me some good news." Kirk replied, as he sat down in his chair.

"_We found the leak, sir, but the damage is substantial."_ Chekov said. _"We're working on it."_

"Any idea what caused it?" Kirk asked.

"_No, sir."_ Chekov answered regretfully. _"But I accept full responsibility. I must have made a mistake with Mr. Scott's methods."_

"Something tells me it wasn't your fault." Kirk replied. "Stay on it." He clicked the comm on his chair, closing the call.

"Shuttle is standing by, Captain." Sulu reported, as McCoy entered the bridge, standing behind the Captain's chair.

Kirk clicked the comm again, opening the signal to the Vulcan officer. "Mr. Spock, thank you for assisting Doctor Marcus."

"_It is only logical, as I am the only science officer qualified to-"_ Spock started.

"Yep, you're welcome." Kirk cut him off.

"You know, I've often dreamed of being stuck on a deserted planet with a gorgeous woman." McCoy said. "Only there was no torpedo."

* * *

"Perhaps it was better that I was sent, then, Doctor, as we are not here to flirt." Spock said into his communicator, as he followed Carol onto the empty, gray, rocky planetoid, both of them holding cases of equipment. "Dr. Marcus, what do you need me to do?"

"To understand how powerful these weapons are, we need to open the warhead." Carol explained, attaching several sensor's to the torpedo's body. "To do that, we need to access the fuel compartment."

"Unfortunately for us, the warheads on these weapons are live." Spock finished her thought.

"Exactly." Carol nodded, opening a side hatch and looking inside. "Mr. Spock, there's a bundle of fiber optic cables against the inner casing. You'll need to cut the twenty-third wire down. Whatever you do, do not touch anything else."

"To do so would not result well for us." Spock replied, taking a pair of wire cutters and inserting them into the hatch.

"Wait for my word." Carol said. "I'm rerouting the detonation processor. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Good luck." Carol said, clicking a button on her sensor pad just as McCoy cut the wire. The hatch's door slammed back into place, pinning Spock's arm inside it, causing him to yell in pain.

* * *

Back on the Enterprise's bridge, a small sensor lit up on its main viewport, where the bridge crew was monitoring the torpedo via Carol's sensors.

"Sir, the torpedo just armed itself." Sulu reported.

"The warhead's going to detonate in thirty seconds, sir!" Officer Darwin, Chekov's replacement, added.

"_Doctor, what's happened?"_ Spock asked, with a hint of panic in his voice.

Uhura ran from her station to the centre of the deck, once again finding herself staring forward at the screen and hoping that Spock wouldn't die.

"Target their signal. Beam them back right now." Kirk ordered.

"The transporter can't differentiate between Mr. Spock and the torpedo!" Darwin replied. "We can't beam back one without the other."

"Dr. Marcus, can you disarm it?" Kirk asked into the comm.

* * *

Carol was on the other side of the torpedo, opening up the main sensor grid and clicking a series of switches, looking for a disarming function. The torpedo had begun to increase the volume of its electronic whirring, while the counter beeped every second.

"I'm trying." She answered.

"Captain, beam her back onboard." Spock said.

"No!" Carol yelled. "If you beam me back, he dies, just let me do it!"

"Ten. Nine. Eight." Spock counted, watching the counter on the hatch's door, as Carol continued to look for the kill switch.

* * *

"Standing by to transport Dr. Marcus on your command, sir." Sulu said.

Kirk didn't answer.

* * *

"Four. Three." Spock continued.

All of the lights of the torpedo's fuel compartment device were red.

"Shit!" Carol yelled, grabbing the entire device and pulling it out of the hatch, falling backwards against the ground.

The side hatch's door retracted and Spock fell back as well. The two Starfleet officers lay against the grey rock ground for a few seconds while the electronic whirring died down, both of them happy to still be alive. On top of the missile, a hatch opened, revealing the inside of the weapon.

* * *

"Deactivation successful, Captain." Sulu reported.

Uhura let out a deep breath and hugged the captain, who patted her back reassuringly before leaning over the console and clicking the comms button again.

"Mr. Spock, are you all right?' He asked.

Spock and Carol both slowly got back to their feet, looking inside the missile to see what Harrison had been talking about.

"_Mr. Spock."_ Kirk repeated through the communicator.

"Captain." Spock answered. "You are going to want to see this."

Inside the torpedo, visible from the open hatch, was a man inside of a glass tube, the front of which was almost completely covered with frost.

* * *

**COORDINATES **

**JUPITER**

* * *

Scotty had managed to acquire a Starfleet shuttle, and was currently headed towards the coordinates that Kirk had given him, flying around behind Jupiter. He had passed by the enormous planet and was heading towards Titan. As he flew over the moon, he looked around, searching for anything suspicious or strange. Eventually, a giant, metal, rectangular, but unidentifiable structure came into view.

Scotty turned the controls towards it, trying to make out what it was as he moved closer. He could see that it was clearly made by humans, with big satellite dishes and spires pointing outwards, as well as shafts of blue light emerging from inside of it.

Scotty flew around to the other end of the structure, checking his sensors, trying to figure out what it could be. He moved the shuttle to look downwards at it, and the entire end opened, blue light flashing out into space.

"_Delta team, deliver your thrusters to loading dock twelve."_

Scotty jumped at the voice coming through his comms. Before he could locate the source, another voice crackled through.

"_U.S.S. Vengeance bridge crew, requesting entry to construction hanger."_

"_You are cleared to land." _

Scotty looked, up, and saw a large group of shuttles, identical to his, headed towards the enormous entrance. He moved the flight joystick into their group, blending in. as they entered, Scotty realized that what he was inside was a hanger bay, but there was only one thing inside it. An enormous black shape that looked familiar to him, but he couldn't place it.

"_I need a welding team on the number one nacelle."_

Scotty realized what the shape was. And there was only one thing he could think of to sum up what he was seeing.

"Holy shit."

* * *

The door to the _Enterprise's_ med bay hissed open, Kirk walking inside to investigate what Doctor Marcus and Spock had discovered inside the torpedo. The two were currently taking the weapon apart, while McCoy performed a number of medical scans on the pod inside.

"What have we got?" Kirk asked.

"It's quite clever actually." Carol answered. "This fuel container's been removed from the torpedo and retrofitted to hide this cryo tube."

Kirk walked over to the torpedo, looking down at the man inside. "Is he alive?" He asked McCoy.

"He's alive." McCoy nodded. "But if we try to revive him without the proper sequencing, it could kill him. Now, I once performed an emergency C-section on a pregnant Gorn. Octuplets. And let me tell you, those little bastards bite, but this...this technology's just beyond me."

"The cryo tube is not advanced." Spock explained. "It is ancient."

"We haven't needed to freeze anyone since we developed warp capability, which explains the most interesting thing about our friend here." McCoy said. "He's three hundred years old."

Kirk looked up at Spock, who met his stunned look with his usual neutral one. They both had the same idea, and they both knew what to do next.

* * *

Harrison didn't look surprised when Kirk and Spock ran into the brig. He was sitting on his bunk, continuing to stare ahead, calm and collected.

"Why is there a man inside that torpedo?" Kirk asked.

"There are men and women inside all of those torpedoes, Captain." Harrison answered. "I put them there."

Kirk and Spock looked at each other, their suspicion confirmed.

"Who the hell are you?" Kirk asked.

There were a few seconds of silence between the three of them, and the only sound in the room was the low whirring that the ship always had.

"A remnant of a time long past." Harrison finally answered. "Genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others to peace, in a world at war. But we were condemned as criminals, forced into exile. For centuries we slept, hoping that when we awoke, things would be different."

Harrison turned his head, looking at Spock.

"But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, your Starfleet began to aggressively search distant quadrants of space for unforeseen threats." He continued. "My ship was found adrift, and I alone was revived."

"I looked up "John Harrison"." Kirk said. "And I found no recent records, not even in confidential files."

"All records of who I truly am were lost long ago, burned to ash." Harrison replied, standing up. "Very convenient for your Admiral Marcus, to have a blank slate to use in the advancement of his cause."

"Why would a Starfleet Admiral want three-hundred-year-old frozen man's help?" Kirk asked.

"Because I am better." Harrison answered, smiling.

"At what?"

"Everything." Harrison answered, the smile gone. "Alexander Marcus needed to understand those who were born from war, and suddenly, he had a man who was designed for it, and who he could control. He needed to respond to an uncivilized threat that no-one in this civilized time could understand, so he used the knowledge of the past with the tools of the future."

"You are suggesting that the Admiral violated every regulation that he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect." Spock said.

"He wanted to exploit my savagery." Harrison hissed. "Design alone is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock, you need something that can truly cause damage. You, and your kind, can't even break a rule, how would you be expected to break bone?"

Spock stared at him, with the noticeable hint of anger starting to creep onto his face.

"But Marcus needed to break a species, so he used me to design weapons. To help him realize his vision of a militarized Starfleet." Harrison continued, looking at Kirk. "He sent you to use those weapons. To fire my torpedoes on an unsuspecting planet. And then, he purposefully crippled your ship in enemy space, leading to one inevitable outcome."

Kirk kept his face neutral, but his mind was racing at all of this information. Belief and doubt were warring painfully inside his head.

"The Klingons would come searching for whoever was responsible, and you would have no chance of escape." Harrison smiled, knowing the effect that his words were having. "Marcus would finally have the war he talked about. The war he always wanted."

"No." Kirk shook his head. "I watched you open fire in a room full of unarmed Starfleet officers. You killed them in cold blood!"

"Marcus took my crew from me." Harrison said, turning away from them.

"You are a murderer!" Kirk yelled.

"He used my friends to control me." Harrison hissed, breathing heavily. When he spoke again, his voice was soft. "I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons that I had designed. But I was discovered. I had no choice but to escape alone. And when I did, I had every reason to suspect that Marcus had killed every single one of the people I hold most dear." He paused, a single tear running down his cheek. "So I responded in kind."

Harrison turned, looking at the two Starfleet officers. They had matching expressions, but Harrison could tell that they were conflicted.

"My crew is my family, Kirk." Harrison said. "Is there anything that you would not do for your family?"

Before Kirk could answer, the room's comm chirped, and Sulu's voice crackled through it. _"Proximity alert, sir! There's a ship at warp headed right for us."_

"Klingons?" Kirk called, snapped out of his thoughts.

"At warp?" Harrison asked. "No, Kirk. We both know who it is."

"_I don't think so."_ Sulu answered. _"It's not coming at us from Kronos."_

Kirk turned away from the prisoner, starting to run out of the room. "Lieutenant, move Harrison to med bay." He ordered one of the nearby officers. "Post six security officers on him."

If Harrison was right, Kirk needed him out of the way. He was developing a plan in his head, and if he made a mistake, they would all pay.

* * *

_**So, this chapter was a little bit shorter, but the next one should be back to the typical length, it's just how I'm dividing up the story. Hopefully you enjoyed, see you soon!**_


	4. Chapter 4

"Captain on the bridge!"

Kirk and Spock exited the elevator quickly, Kirk walking over to stand in front of his chair.

"ETA of the incoming ship." He requested.

"Fifteen seconds, sir." Sulu answered, while an alarm blared through the room.

Kirk sat in his chair. "Shields." He ordered.

"Aye, Captain." Sulu replied, clicking a few switches to activate them.

The bridge was silent for a few seconds before the other ship arrived. The blue flash of warp disappeared in an instant, leaving the enormous, black shape of a Starfleet ship in its wake. This ship, while similar in design to the _Enterprise_, dwarfed it considerably. It emitted an ominous blaring noise as it slowed to a stop, the two ships facing each other directly. Painted across the top of the new ship were the words "_U.S.S. Vengeance_"." Everyone on the bridge was in awe, having never seen a ship like it before. Kirk was more worried about who was inside.

"They're hailing us, sir." Uhura reported from her station.

"On screen." Kirk replied, before adding. "Broadcast ship-wide, for the record."

The screen flashed an _**"INCOMING TRANSMISSION"**_ box, before the smiling face of Admiral Marcus appeared on it.

"_Captain Kirk."_ The Admiral nodded.

Kirk let out a deep breath. "Admiral Marcus." He greeted, putting on a fake smile. "I wasn't expecting you. That's a hell of a ship you've got there."

"_And I wasn't expecting to get word that you'd taken Harrison into custody, in violation of your orders."_ Marcus replied.

"Well, we..." Kirk trailed off. "We had to improvise when our warp core unexpectedly malfunctioned. But you already knew that, didn't you, sir?"

"_I don't take your meaning."_

"Well, that's why you're here, isn't it?" Kirk asked. "To assist with our repairs? Why else would the head of Starfleet personally come to the edge of the Neutral Zone?"

Sulu looked down at a sensor that was quietly chirping. "Captain, they're scanning our ship." He reported.

"Is there something I can help you find, sir?" Kirk asked.

"_Where is your prisoner, Kirk?"_ Marcus asked.

"Per Starfleet regulation, I'm planning on returning Harrison to Earth to stand trial. Along with the rest of his crew."

"_Well, shit."_ Marcus rubbed his forehead. _"You talked to him. This is exactly what I was hoping to spare you from. I took a tactical risk and I woke that bastard up, believing that his superior intelligence could help us protect ourselves from whatever came at us next. But I made a mistake."_

Kirk's expression turned from sarcastic victory to disbelief. The other side of the story was presenting itself, only it wasn't as hard to accept as Kirk thought it might be.

"_And now the blood of everyone he's killed is on my hands. So, I'm asking you, give him to me, so that I can end what I started."_ Marcus said.

"And what exactly would you like me to do with the rest of his crew, sir?" Kirk asked. "Fire them at the Klingons? End seventy-two lives? Start a war in the process?"

"_He put those people in those torpedoes."_ Marcus replied. _"And I simply didn't want to burden you with knowing what was inside of them."_

Inside the med bay, Carol and McCoy listened to the exchange, while looking at Harrison. He sat straight up on one of the beds, seemingly not absorbing what Marcus was saying, while the security team surrounding him watched him nervously.

"_You saw what this man can do all by himself. Can you imagine what would happen if we woke up the rest of his crew?" _Marcus asked. _"What else did he tell you? That he's a peacekeeper? He's playing you, son, don't you see that? Harrison and his crew were condemned to death as war criminals. And now it is our duty to carry out that sentence before anybody else dies because of him."_

Kirk looked down, not knowing whose story to believe.

"_Now, I'm going to ask you again. One last time, son." _Marcus warned. _"Lower your shields. Tell me where he is."_

Kirk had to make a decision now. When he looked back up at the Admiral, he knew who to believe.

"He's in engineering, sir." Kirk sighed. "But I'll have him moved to the transporter room right away."

"_I'll take it from here."_ Marcus replied, and his face disappeared from the screen, leaving a box saying _**"TRANSMISSION TERMINATED"**_.

"Do not drop those shields, Mr. Sulu." Kirk ordered, standing up and walking behind his chair.

"Aye, Captain." Sulu replied.

"Captain, given your awareness of Harrison's true location in the med bay, may I know the details of your plan?" Spock asked.

"I told Marcus we were bringing a fugitive back to Earth." Kirk replied. "That's what we're going to do." He clicked the comms button. "Mr. Chekov, can we warp?"

"_Sir, if we got to warp, we run the risk of seriously damaging the core!"_ Chekov replied.

"Can we do it?" Kirk asked again.

Chekov sighed. _"Technically, yes, but I would not advise it, Captain."_

"Noted." Kirk nodded, clicking the comms button again. "Mr. Sulu, set course for Earth."

"Yes, sir." Sulu replied.

Kirk sat in his chair, preparing himself for what was to come. "Punch it."

Sulu pushed the warp lever forward, and the Enterprise's twin thrusters fired, sending them speeding forward at warp speed. The ship flew through the long tunnel of elongated stars, seemingly safe.

* * *

Down in the med bay, McCoy held a whirring medical sensor to Harrison's face, continuing his investigation of what exactly the man was.

"Well, at least we're moving again." McCoy shrugged.

"If you think you're safe at warp, you're wrong." Harrison replied flatly, his gray eyes flickering over to Carol.

Carol realized what he meant, and turned, sprinting out of the med bay. If her investigation into her father's new technologies was correct, then they were all in danger.

* * *

"Lieutenant Uhura, contact Starfleet." Kirk requested. "Tell them that we were pursued into the Neutral Zone by an unmarked Federation ship."

"Long-range comms are down, sir." Uhura replied, trying every signal that she could.

The elevator slid door slid open and Carol ran in, breathing heavily. "Permission to come on the bridge!" She requested, sounding panicked.

"Doctor Marcus." Kirk said, standing up and looking at her with concern, noting her urgency.

"He's going to catch up with us, and when he does, the only thing that's going to stop him from destroying this ship is me, so you have to let me talk to him." She said rapidly.

"Carol, we're at warp. He can't catch up with us." Kirk replied.

"Yes, he can." Carol insisted. "He's been developing a ship that has advanced warp capabilities, and I-"

"Captain!" Sulu called, as a loud beeping started. "I'm getting a reading I don't understand."

* * *

As the _Enterprise_ continued its steady path through warp, the enormous black shape of the _Vengeance_ had appeared behind it. The black ship was gradually gaining on the _Enterprise_, and it eventually loomed over the white ship like a shadow. Its thrusters blared louder than any ship that anyone onboard the smaller ship had ever heard. Even in warp, there was no escape. The _Vengeance_ fired from two small phaser cannons, sending red bursts of energy into the _Enterprise's_ main hull.

Inside the _Enterprise_, the bridge crew was thrown from their stations at the impact, stumbling around as the ship rocked.

But the _Vengeance_ didn't stop, firing blast after blast. Down in engineering, a series of phasers tore through the hull, pulling debris and several screaming crew members out into the flashing warp tunnel, and they flew by the two ships in less than a second. Another blast hit one of the _Enterprise's_ thrusters, and the white ship spun out of control, passing through the flashing wall of the warp tunnel out into space, the usual droning of warp speed replaced with silence.

All throughout the _Enterprise's_ bridge, alarms were blaring and lights were flashing. Every bridge officer was at their station, monitoring the damage that had been done to the ship.

"Where are we?" Kirk yelled.

"We're two-hundred and thirty-seven thousand kilometres from Earth." Sulu reported.

"Damage report!" Kirk requested, walking along the bridge.

"Weapons are down!"

"Shields are dropping!"

"We're defenseless, sir."

"Sir, we have a bulkhead breach."

"Where's the damage?" Kirk asked.

"Major hull damage, Captain." Another officer reported.

Before any more reports could be given, the _Vengeance_ emerged from warp, firing across the length of the _Enterprise_, peppering it with explosions. Several officers were thrown down hallways as giant billows of fire filled entire rooms.

The bridge jolted again, and Kirk began to panic. "Evasive maneuvers!" He yelled. "Get us to Earth! Right now!"

"Captain! Stop!' Carol yelled, holding out a hand. "Everybody on this ship is going to die if you don't let me speak to him."

Kirk let his panic slowly ebb away, control flooding in. "Uhura, hail him." He ordered.

Uhura turned and rapidly clicked the necessary switches, opening a direct channel to the _Vengeance_.

"Sir, it's me. It's Carol. "Carol said into the comm.

A few more phasers hit the _Enterprise_, before the attack suddenly stopped, debris slowly floating through space around them.

Marcus's face re-appeared on the main screen, but now he looked shocked. _"What are you doing on that ship?"_ He demanded.

"I heard what you said." Carol answered, with tears in her eyes. "That you made a mistake, and now you're doing everything you can to fix it. But, Dad, I don't believe that the man who raised me is capable of destroying a ship full of innocent people. And, if I'm wrong about that, then you'll have to do it with me onboard."

Marcus stared at his daughter for a second. _"Actually, Carol, I won't."_ He replied.

White light beams started to spiral around Carol, along with the telltale whirring of beaming.

"Jim-" She started to say.

"Can we interrupt the transport signal?" Kirk asked.

"No, sir." A red-shirted officer replied.

Carol ran down the bridge, as if she was trying to run away from the signal, screaming as the lights flew faster and the whirring grew louder, before she disappeared.

"_Captain Kirk, without authorization, and in league with the fugitive John Harrison, you went rogue in enemy territory, leaving me no choice but to hunt you down and destroy you." _Marcus said, leaning back in his chair. _"Lock phasers."_

Suddenly, it all made sense to Kirk. Marcus could never allow the truth to get out, and the only reason he would destroy the ship, and everyone aboard, was to protect that truth. But not everyone knew Harrison's secret, so Kirk did the only thing he could think to do.

"Wait, sir, wait!" Kirk yelled, running forward to the screen.

"_I'll make this quick."_ Marcus said. _"Target all aft torpedoes on the _Enterprise's_ bridge."_

"Sir, my crew was just following my orders." Kirk pleaded. "I take full responsibility for my actions, but they were mine, and they were mine alone."

Marcus turned back to face the screen, looking at Kirk again. He held up a hand to his crew, delaying his kill order.

All around Kirk, the bridge crew stared at their captain.

"If I transmit Harrison's location to you now, all that I ask is that you spare them." Kirk continued. "Please, sir, I'll do anything you want. Just let them live."

"_That's a...hell of an apology."_ Marcus nodded. _"But, if it's any consolation, I was never going to spare your crew."_

Kirk's pleading expression faded away as he realized what was about to happen.

"_Fire when-"_ Marcus started to say, before the _**"TRANSMISSION TERMINATED"**_ box appeared again.

* * *

Beneath the _Vengeance_, enormous twin cannons emerged, turning slowly to point at the _Enterprise_, while blue lights flickered on down the length of them. When they were charged, this very one-sided battle would be over.

* * *

Kirk turned slowly to look at his crew, all of whom were still staring at him, but now their hopeful expressions were gone, and they had joined him in realization of their fate. Any chance that there had been of their survival was now gone, and in any second, their lives and their mission would be over.

"I'm sorry." Kirk said, having no idea what else he could say.

* * *

The blue lights were filled, and the mechanical hum steadily grew louder as the cannons prepare to fire. But, before they could, they shut down, the lights turned off, and the cannons slumped limply out of place.

* * *

"Our weapons won't fire, sir!" One of the _Vengeance's_ bridge crew said.

"Our shields are down, we're losing power!" Another called out.

"Someone in engineering just manually reset our systems!" Another officer reported.

"What do you mean, "someone"?" Marcus yelled furiously. "Who?"

* * *

"Their weapons have powered down, sir." Sulu reported.

A familiar, Scottish voice crackled through their damaged comms.

"_Enterprise? Can you hear me?"_

"Scotty!' Kirk yelled, hope suddenly reappearing.

* * *

Scotty ran out of the ship's engineering room, his face drenched in sweat. "Guess what I found behind Jupiter." He said into his communicator.

"_You're on that ship!"_ Kirk's voice crackled through it.

"I snuck on." Scotty nodded. "And, seeing as I've just committed an act of treason against a Starfleet Admiral, I'd really like to get off this bloody ship. Now beam me out!"

"_You're a miracle worker."_ Kirk grinned. _"We're a little low on power right now. Just stand by."_

"What do you mean, "low on power"?" Scotty asked. "What happened to the _Enterprise_?"

Before he could get an answer, he heard a door open in the distance, and knowing what would happen if he was discovered here and now, he opted to wait.

"Call you back!" he said quietly, before closing the communicator and running back into the engineering room, the door sliding shut behind him.

* * *

"Scotty!" Kirk called, but got no response. But now, they had more time, time that Kirk could use to formulate a new plan. He turned around, walking quickly across the bridge "Spock. Our ship, how is she?" He asked the Vulcan.

"Our options are limited, Captain." Spock answered. "We cannot fire and we cannot flee."

Kirk thought for a moment, many of his plans removed by those facts. "There is one option." He replied.

Spock looked up at the captain in surprise, piecing together what he meant.

"Uhura, when you get Scotty back, patch him through." Kirk ordered.

"Yes, sir." Uhura nodded.

"Mr. Spock, you have the conn." Kirk nodded to the Vulcan, before he turned and headed towards the elevator. But Spock followed him.

"Captain, I strongly object." Spock said, as Kirk clicked a button and the elevator door closed.

"To what?" Kirk asked. "I haven't said anything yet."

"Since we cannot take the ship from the outside, the only way that we can stop it is from within. And as a large boarding party would be detected, it is optimal for you to take as few members of the crew as possible." Spock said.

Kirk already knew where he was going with his thought, and didn't say anything as the elevator doors opened. The two of them exited and began walking down a hallway towards the med bay, Spock continuing his explanation.

"You will meet resistance, requiring personnel with advanced combat abilities and innate knowledge of that ship." Spock pointed out. "All of this indicates that you plan to align with Harrison, the very man we were sent here to destroy."

"I'm not aligning with him, I'm using him." Kirk corrected. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who was betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects." Spock noted.

"Still, it's a hell of a quote." Kirk shrugged.

"I will go with you, Captain." Spock said dutifully.

"No, I need you on the bridge." Kirk replied.

Spock grabbed Kirk's shoulder, stopping him. "I cannot allow you to do this." He said. "It is my function aboard this ship to advise you on making the wisest decisions possible, something I firmly believe you are incapable of doing in this moment."

"You're right!" Kirk yelled, stopping Spock from continuing. "What I'm about to do, it doesn't make any sense, it's not logical. It is a gut feeling."

Spock didn't seem to understand. Kirk shook his head, trying to come up with a simpler way to explain his line of thinking.

"I have no idea what I'm supposed to do." Kirk sighed. "I only know what I can do. The Enterprise and her crew need someone in that chair who knows what they're doing. And it's not me. It's you, Spock."

Kirk turned and walked away, leaving Spock to think on his words.

* * *

Kirk entered the med bay, stopping to stare ahead at Harrison, who hadn't moved, while the door slid shut behind him. If Kirk wanted, he could abandon this plan now, and try another one. Something logical, like Spock would recommend.

Kirk walked forwards.

He stopped in front of Harrison, who didn't react, again as if he'd been expecting him to come down.

"Tell me everything you know about that ship." Kirk said.

"Dreadnought class." Harrison answered. "Two times the size, three times the speed, advanced weaponry, modified for a minimal crew. Unlike most Federation vessels, it's built solely for combat."

"I will do everything that I can to make you answer for what you did." Kirk promised, again receiving no reaction from Harrison. "But right now I need your help."

"In exchange for what?" Harrison asked.

"You said you'd do anything for your crew. I can guarantee their safety." Kirk answered.

"Captain." Harrison sighed, shaking his head. "You can't even guarantee the safety of your own crew."

Kirk was distracted from the conversation by McCoy walking up beside him.

"What did you find from his blood?" Kirk quietly asked the doctor.

"His cells regenerate like nothing I've ever seen." McCoy answered. "I'm still running some tests, I'm trying to figure out the source."

Kirk nodded, and McCoy walked away. Kirk looked back at Harrison, who had on his same neutral expression, betraying no thoughts.

"You coming with me or not?" Kirk asked.

* * *

"_You want to do _what_?"_ Scotty asked through the communicator, still running through the engineering bay.

"We're coming over there." Kirk explained again, while he, Harrison, and the security team walked down a hallway. "Sulu's maneuvering the Enterprise into position as we speak."

"_To this ship? How?"_

"There's an airlock opening in Hanger Seven, labelled "Access Point One-Zero-One-A"." Harrison said into Kirk's communicator. "You need to find the manual override to it."

"_Are you crazy? Whoever you are..."_

"Just listen to him, Scotty." Kirk said. "It's going to be all right."

"_It is not going to be all right."_ Scotty countered. _"You want me to open an airlock into space, whereupon I will freeze, die, and explode!"_

* * *

Back on the _Enterprise's_ bridge, Spock walked over to Uhura's station.

"Lieutenant, could you perform a search in the records for me?" He asked.

"Of course." She answered. "What do you need me to find?"

"I want you to search for any references to John Harrison, in association with the Eugenics Wars of the twentieth century." He requested.

"I'll do my best."

"Thank you." Spock said, walking across the bridge and sitting in the captain's chair. "Mr. Sulu, what is the status of the other ship?" He asked.

"The systems are still offline." Sulu answered. "I'm aligning our ship now."

Sulu clicked a few buttons on his console, matching the signals of airlocks on both ships. Outside, small thrusters slowly rotated the _Enterprise_ so that it would be a straight line from one ship's airlock to the other's.

* * *

Scotty made his way down a series of tunnels, periodically checking behind himself to see if he was still being followed. He reached a glowing console, trying to access the ship's internal hardware. He couldn't find a way in, and the report being shown on the screen was anything but good for them.

* * *

Inside one of the Enterprise's airlocks, Kirk and Harrison climbed down the wall's ladder into the main tube. They were now dressed in space containment suits, with glowing helmets, containing the guidance software that would keep them on the proper path, so as not to end up as a stain on the side of the _Vengeance_.

When they were secure inside, Kirk held a thumbs-up to the officers above, and the airlock was sealed. "Scotty, how are you doing over there?" He asked into the suit's comm.

"_Captain, I wish I had better news."_ Scotty's reply crackled. _"They've locked out access to the ship's main computer. They'll have full weapons in nine minutes. That means next time, I won't be able to stop them from destroying the _Enterprise_. Stand by." _

Scotty then took off running down the hallway, headed towards Hanger 7.

* * *

"Commander, our trash exhaust is aimed at access port One-Zero-One-A of the other ship." Sulu reported.

Spock clicked the comms button on the chair. "Captain, the ships are aligned." He said into it.

* * *

"Copy that." Kirk nodded. "Scotty!"

* * *

The door to Hanger 7 opened, and Scotty ran inside. "I'm in the hanger." He reported. When he realized the size of the hanger, he added. "Give me a minute."

He started to sprint down the length of the hanger, wheezing. "I'm running. Stand by." He said into his communicator.

Eventually, he reached the end of the hanger and saw access port 101-A.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on, now, Captain." He said into his communicator. "This door is very wee. I mean, you know, small. It's four square metres, tops. It's going to be like jumping out of a moving car, off a bridge, into your shot glass."

* * *

"Really?" Kirk asked. "Weird, I've actually done that before."

Harrison slowly turned his head to look at Kirk, his neutral expression not changing, but still conveying confusion.

"Yeah, it was vertical." Kirk explained. "We jumped onto a...well, it was a..."

Harrison turned his head back towards the airlock door.

"It doesn't...really...matter..." Kirk trailed off, returning to the task at hand. "Scotty-" He started to say.

"Did you find the manual override?" Harrison asked.

"The manual override, Scotty." Kirk added.

* * *

"Not yet, not yet." Scotty replied, sprinting across the hanger again. He eventually came to a console, clicking buttons rapidly while he held his communicator in his mouth. After a few clicks, a light turned on over the airlock door with a resounding noise, and Scotty knew that he was on the right path.

* * *

"_Captain, before you launch, you should be aware that there is a considerable debris field between our ships."_ Spock warned, while he looked at a diagram of the area in space around them.

"Spock, not now." Kirk replied. "Scotty, you good?"

"_It's not easy!"_ Scotty hissed angrily, beginning to type rapidly on the console. _"Just give me two seconds, all right, you mad bastard!" _

Kirk nodded, still not having complete confidence in their plan. Harrison knelt down on one knee, preparing for their launch. After a few seconds, Kirk did the same.

* * *

McCoy knelt down next to Spock in the captain's chair. "Tell me this is going to work." He requested.

"I have neither the information nor the confidence to do so, Doctor." The Vulcan answered.

"Boy, you're a real comfort." The doctor muttered.

* * *

"_Okay, Captain, stand by."_ Scotty said, still clicking rapidly. The console lit up green, and Scotty threw up his hands in victory. _"Yes! Okay, I'm set to open the door!"_

"You ready?" Kirk asked Harrison.

"Are you?" Harrison asked back.

Kirk ignored the comment, getting tired of Harrison's baiting. "Spock, pull the trigger." He ordered.

* * *

Spock hesitated for a moment, but still followed the order, "Yes, Captain." He nodded.

Members of the bridge crew turned to look at Spock, many of them sharing the lack of confidence in their captain's plan.

"Launching activation sequence on three..." Spock said.

* * *

Harrison's facial display lit up inside of his mask, the targeting computer loading the path to the _Vengeance's_ airlock.

"_...two..."_

Kirk's matching display lit up.

"_...one."_

The airlock opened, sending the two men flying out into space, while the door slammed back shut behind them. The two of them flew through the silence of space towards the _Vengeance_, the only sound that they could hear being their own breathing. As they moved, they could see the variety of debris floating around them, and they both knew that this would be more difficult than they originally thought.

* * *

"Sir, Kirk is headed for collision at point four-three-two!" An _Enterprise_ bridge crew member reported.

"Captain, there is debris directly ahead." Spock warned.

* * *

"Copy that." Kirk replied. He clicked a button on his suit's hand, activating the pack on his back. The pack fired compressed air, moving Kirk out of the debris' path. But this action caused him to fly away from Harrison, who looked after the captain with mild concern.

"_Whoa!"_ Kirk heard McCoy exclaim in his ear. _"Jim, you're way off course!"_

"I know, I know! I can see that!" Jim replied, watching his HUD. He began to wildly fire his pack, continuing to maneuver quickly through the debris, trying desperately to get back on course.

* * *

Scotty had found a long piece of rope nearby, and was busy tying to the console. When it was secure, he started to wrap it around his wrist, his communicator being held in his mouth. He was so focused on securing himself to the console that he didn't hear a security officer come up behind him, before the officer's phaser clicked behind his head.

"Don't move." The tall, muscular officer ordered.

Scotty froze, the communicator clattering to the ground.

* * *

"_Use your display compass, Captain."_ Sulu said. _"You must correct precisely thirty-seven point two-four-three degrees."_

"Got it. I'm working my way back." Kirk replied, following his display's now twisted line to the _Vengeance_. "Scotty, you're going to be ready with that door, right?"

* * *

Scotty held his free hand in the air, completely frozen in fear.

"What are you doing here?" The security officer asked, the phaser not wavering.

"Wee bit of maintenance on the airlock console." Scotty answered nervously. "You're big." He also noted.

* * *

"Mr. Scott, where are you?" Kirk yelled.

"_Captain, he can't seem to hear you."_ Uhura reported. _"I'm working on getting his signal back. Stand by."_

Before Kirk could say anything else, a small piece of debris hit his mask, causing a crack to appear in the glass. "Damn it." He muttered.

"_Captain, what is it?"_ Spock asked.

"My helmet was hit." Kirk answered, watching as the crack slowly expanded. "Uhura, tell me you have Mr. Scott back."

"_Not yet. I'm still working on a signal."_

* * *

"_His communicator is still working. I don't know why he isn't responding."_ Scotty's communicator squawked.

"What is that?" The security officer asked, looking at the communicator on the floor.

"Are you Starfleet or private security?" Scotty asked.

"Show me your other hand." The officer ordered, gesturing with his phaser.

"Because you look like private security." Scotty added, silently making a decision.

* * *

"Imminent collision detected!" Sulu exclaimed, watching the display from Harrison's mask.

"Harrison, use evasive action!" Spock warned. "There is debris directly ahead."

* * *

"I see it." Harrison replied. He clicked his hand buttons, allowing him to weave through large pieces of metal debris. But before he had time to react, a large metal block floated up in front of him, and he collided with it, spinning in space.

* * *

On the _Enterprise's_ main screen, the moving dot that indicated Harrison disappeared, followed by a rapid beeping.

"Mr. Sulu, did we lose Harrison?" Spock asked.

"I don't know, Commander." Sulu answered. "I'm having trouble tracking him in all of this debris."

* * *

Kirk looked to the side, not seeing the man who had been flying alongside him. "Was Harrison hit?" He asked.

"_We're trying to find him now."_ Spock replied.

"_Captain, you need to adjust your target destination to one-eight-three by four-seven-three degrees." _Sulu added.

Kirk continued to fire his pack, dodging the huge pieces of metal that had originated from his own ship. But suddenly, his targeting tracker started to flicker, and eventually died, leaving Kirk staring through a cracked helmet at debris and the _Vengeance_ still much too far in the distance.

"Spock, my display's dead. I'm flying blind." Kirk said, now finally sounding nervous.

"_Captain, without your display compass, hitting your target destination is mathematically impossible." _The Vulcan said.

"Spock, if I get back, we really need to talk about your bedside manner." Kirk muttered.

* * *

"Commander, he's not going to make it." Sulu said, turning to face Spock.

Spock looked down and didn't reply, but was quietly running ideas through his head that had formed since Kirk had explained his plan. If the captain was going to die, then he needed to find a way to save the rest of the crew.

Before he could decide on one, the dot indicating Harrison appeared again.

* * *

Harrison used the compressed air bursts to fly forward, making up for lost distance and steering himself through the wreckage towards Kirk.

"My display is still functioning." He said. "I see you, Kirk, you're two hundred metres ahead of me at my one o'clock."

Kirk looked to his left, seeing Harrison slowly approaching him.

"Come to your left a few degrees and follow me." Harrison continued.

Kirk nodded, and clicked the hand buttons, moving to his left. By the time he was next to Harrison, the other man had closed the distance, and they were now flying side by side straight towards the _Vengeance_. The two men shared a look, Harrison's usual calm face briefly breaking into a smile at Kirk's glare.

"Scotty, we're getting close." Kirk said, again ignoring Harrison. "We need a warm welcome."

All that anyone heard from Scotty was silence.

"Do you copy? Do you copy, Scotty?" Kirk repeated, growing increasingly aware of their proximity to the enemy ship.

* * *

"If you can hear us, Mr. Scott, open the door in ten, nine..." Spock started.

* * *

"_Scotty!"_ Kirk's voice crackled through the communicator on the hanger floor.

"_...eight..."_ Spock continued.

"That person counting down, what is that?" The security officer asked.

"I think you're hearing things, mate." Scotty replied, tightening his grip on the rope around his wrist.

* * *

"_...seven..."_

"_Mr. Scott, where are you?"_ Kirk asked.

"_...six, five..."_

"_...eighteen hundred metres, sixteen hundred metres..." _Another _Enterprise_ bridge crew member joined the chorus.

"_...four..."_

* * *

"Sorry about this." Scotty said.

"About what?" The security officer asked.

* * *

"_Scotty, where are you?"_

"_...three..."_

"_Do you copy, Scotty? Please!"_ Kirk yelled again, while he and Harrison were almost at the door.

"_...two..."_

"_Mr. Scott, open the door!"_ Spock said.

"_Open the door!"_ Kirk yelled.

* * *

"_Mr. Scott! Now!"_

Scotty took a deep breath and turned to the console, slamming his palm down on the activation button.

The airlock door flew open, pulling the security officer down the enormous hanger towards the vacuum of space, screaming his last breaths. Kirk and Harrison flew into the hanger side by side, passing by the officer in mid-air, who few outwards. Scotty slowly pulled himself back up to the console and hit the button again, and the door slammed shut, causing him to slump to the ground. Kirk and Harrison joined him, but they still rolled along the floor with their momentum, turning over and over until they eventually slowed, lying still near the console.

Scotty slowly sat up, breathing heavily. "Welcome aboard." He said.

"It's good to see you, Scotty." Kirk nodded.

"Who is that?" Scotty asked, pointing weakly at Harrison, who was already up and alert, looking around the hanger on one knee.

"Harrison, Scotty. Scotty, Harrison." Kirk said, pointing between them, and then stretching his back.

"Hello." Scotty nodded politely. "Wait, isn't Harrison the-"

"They'll know we're here." Harrison interrupted. "I know the best way to the bridge."

After he and Kirk had removed their suits, Kirk removed the pack from his back, opening it to reveal the parts of three phasers. Kirk pulled them out and assembled them one by one before distributing them amongst the three.

"It's locked to stun." He added when he handed Harrison his phaser.

"Theirs won't be." Harrison replied.

"Then try not to get shot." Kirk suggested.

Scotty clicked his phaser together and exchanged a nod with Kirk. The three of them took off out of the hanger, following Harrison towards the bridge.

* * *

"Commander, I think I may have found something in the records that can help." Uhura said, walking over to the captain's chair and handing Spock an electronic pad.

Spock nodded when he took the pad, and began to read. The more he read, the more concerned his face grew.

"Is there a problem, Commander?" Uhura asked.

"Yes, there is." Spock answered, evenly but with a slight edge of nervousness.

* * *

Carol was lead onto the Vengeance's bridge by two security officers. She had given up trying to resist a little while ago, but the mask of pure anger remained.

"Admiral." One of the officers said.

Marcus turned away from the console he was looking t to slowly face his daughter. "I'll deal with you in a-" He started.

He was interrupted by Carol slapping him across the face, but he quickly recovered and grabbed her wrist, holding her in place.

"I am ashamed to be your daughter." Carol spat.

Marcus released her, still angry, but with sadness threatening to appear on his face as well. She hadn't been part of his plan.

"Sir, we just had a hanger door open on Deck Thirteen." One of his bridge crew said, snapping Marcus back to the issue at hand.

"Harrison." Marcus hissed.

* * *

"They're going to have full power and we're walking?" Scotty asked, as Harrison led Kirk and him down an engineering hallway.

"The turbolifts are easily tracked, and then Marcus would have us in a cage." Harrison explained, tucking his phaser into the back of his pants. "This path runs adjacent to the engine room. They know that they won't be able to use their weapons here without destabilizing the warp core, which gives us the advantage."

"Where'd you find this guy?" Scotty asked, confused but admittedly impressed.

"It's a long story." Kirk replied.

They continued down a winding trail of hallways, Kirk and Scotty also holstering their weapons to eliminate risk.

"I don't mean to tempt fate here, but where is everybody?" Scotty asked.

"The ship is designed to be flown by a minimal crew, one, if necessary." Harrison answered.

"One? I-" Scotty started.

He was interrupted when a security officer threw a punch at Harrison from around a corner, but Harrison ducked back, and in a flurry of movement, delivered sharp blows to the officer's stomach and throat, before slamming his body against the wall, before punching his stomach again.

Kirk and Scotty backed up slowly, but were soon engaged by other security officers, who swarmed from around corners and machinery. Kirk and Scotty fought as hard as they could, but the trained security could take their punches.

Harrison continued to tear through officers, knocking another one unconscious after a series of jabs to the head, and running a few feet down the corridor to deliver a kick to another officer's abdomen. The man flew backwards through the air, knocking down an approaching man. Another officer tried to punch Harrison, but Harrison grabbed the man's gun and slammed it across his face twice, knocking him out cold. Harrison turned to look back at how Kirk and Scotty were doing.

Scotty had been knocked to the ground, while Kirk grabbed a piece of machinery from overhead and kicked one of the officers in the face, dispatching him. The other officer managed to get a few punches in against Kirk, but Kirk eventually managed to twist the man's arm and drive his head against a metal panel, ending the fight.

"You all right?" Kirk asked as he helped Scotty up.

"Yeah." Scotty nodded. "Where's Harrison?"

Kirk turned to look down the hallway, which, apart from the usual blinking lights and littered unconscious bodies, was empty.

* * *

Spock got up out of the captain's chair, walking over to Uhura's station. "Lieutenant, I need you to assemble all senior medical and engineering staff in the weapons bay." He requested.

"All right." Uhura nodded, looking Spock up and down as if she was trying to understand his plan.

Spock turned to McCoy, who was now standing behind him, looking interested. "Dr. McCoy, I inadvertently activated a torpedo. Could you assist me in replicating the process?"

"Why the hell would I want to do that?" McCoy asked.

"Can you assist me or can you not?" Spock asked again.

"Damn it, man, I'm a doctor, not a torpedo technician!" McCoy exclaimed.

"The fact that you are a doctor is precisely why I need you to listen very carefully." Spock replied.

* * *

Kirk and Scotty were sweeping the entire engineering bay, cursing every wasted second while they searched for Harrison.

"Where is he?" Scotty asked, frustrated.

Kirk had no answer. They turned down a small hallway, but it was all starting to look the same to him "Shit." He muttered. He had found Harrison, only to lose him again.

"This way." Said the deep, British voice that Kirk, for the first time, associated with relief.

Kirk and Scotty both turned to look back down the hallway, where Harrison was standing. He pulled the phaser out from his pants, and walked away.

"The minute we get to the bridge, drop him." Kirk said quietly.

"What, stun him? Harrison?" Scotty asked, confused. "I thought he was helping us."

"I'm pretty sure we're helping him." Kirk replied, brushing past Scotty after his fugitive-turned-ally.

The three of them continued, getting closer and closer to the bridge, now checking every hallway that they passed. Suddenly, all of the lights around the hallway that they were walking down turned blue again, instead of the flashing red of emergency power. The _Vengeance_ was ready to fire.

The three of them broke into a run.

* * *

"Power coming online, sir!" One of the _Vengeance's_ bridge crew reported.

"Retarget the _Enterprise_ now." Marcus ordered.

"Aye, sir."

The officer never got the chance, as a stun phaser bolt hit him in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Kirk, Scotty and Harrison had reached the bridge, and were now filling it with blue phaser bolts. Every member of the _Vengeance's_ bridge crew was knocked unconscious, stopping them before they could fire at the other ship. A few officers tried to fire back, but they missed, and never got a second chance to fire. Carol slammed her elbow into the nearest officer's face, before Scotty took out the other one, freeing her.

In seconds, the firefight was over, with Scotty going over to Carol, Harrison still watching for any officers that they had missed, and Kirk face to face with Admiral Marcus. Before he continued, Kirk gave Scotty a small nod, and Scotty fired a stun bolt into Harrison's head, knocking him out cold.

"Make sure he stays down." Kirk ordered.

Scotty hurried over, passing Carol. He stopped over Harrison's body, pointing his phaser at the unconscious man's head.

"Admiral Marcus, you're under arrest." Kirk said, his phaser still pointed at Marcus.

"You're not actually going to do this, are you?" Marcus asked, sounding more bored than concerned.

Unseen by any of them, Harrison's eyes slowly opened.

"Admiral, get out of the chair." Kirk continued.

"You'd better stop and think about what you're doing, Kirk." Marcus replied calmly. "You'd better think about what you did on Kronos. You made an incursion onto an enemy planet, and disobeyed direct orders to destroy a dangerous fugitive from the law." Marcus' voice was slowly climbing into a yell. "Even if you got away without a trace, war is coming. And who's going to lead us? You? If I'm not in charge, our entire way of life is decimated! So if you want me off this ship, you'd better kill me."

"I'm not going to kill you, sir." Kirk replied. "But I could stun your ass and drag you out of that chair. But I'd rather not do that in front of your daughter."

Marcus' eyes flickered to Carol's for a second, but she refused to meet his gaze.

"Are you okay?" Kirk asked, turning to look at her.

"Yes, Captain." She nodded.

The bridge was silent for a moment, and Harrison broke it by rising to his feet in an instant, grabbing Scotty and knocking him unconscious.

"Jim!" Carol yelled.

But her warning came too late. As Scotty's body hit the floor, Kirk turned, just in time to see Harrison jump over a console and tackle him to the ground. Marcus took this opportunity to get up from his chair and run for the door. Harrison pinned Kirk down and slammed a fist against his face, yelling angrily. It stopped Kirk's resistance instantly, Kirk having never felt a punch as hard as Harrison's. For good measure, Harrison grabbed Kirk's face and slammed his fist against it again, sending Kirk groaning to the floor. Harrison grabbed Kirk's hair and pulled him to his feet, earning more pained yells from the captain. Harrison slammed his knee against Kirk's leg and threw the weaker man across the bridge, to the ground.

Carol went to Kirk's side, but held her hands up defensively as Harrison advanced on her. Marcus was typing rapidly on the door's opening panel, trying to set it to lock behind him.

"Listen! Wait!" Carol pleaded.

Her wishes fell on deaf ears. Harrison grabbed her and threw her backwards with no effort, sending her sprawling to the ground. As Harrison walked past her, he paused, and, as if in revenge for Carol being related to the Admiral, he slammed a foot down on her leg. The noises that emerged from this were a sharp snap and Carol's pained scream.

Marcus was just about to open the door when Harrison reached him, grabbing his head and pulling him away from the panel. Harrison squeezed the Admiral's head as he pushed the older man down into a chair, and Marcus gripped at his hands, but having no effect. Small cracking sounds were starting to become audible from Marcus' head.

"You..." Harrison snarled, looking down at the Admiral with a mixture of rage at the man's actions, and satisfaction at his own revenge. He had prepared what he would say in this moment for a long time.

"You should have let me sleep."

Harrison focused all of his strength, the strain visible on his face, and he brought his hands together.

The Vengeance's bridge was filled with the sound of a wet, squelching crack followed by Carol Marcus' horrified scream, as Kirk slowly looked up in shock.

* * *

_**So, that's Chapter 4. We've only got two more chapters left, and the next one will have the most changes. Hopefully you enjoy!**_


	5. Chapter 5

"Where is the Captain, Mr. Sulu?" Spock asked, walking across the front of the bridge and standing in front of the pilot's console.

"Our sensor array's down, sir." Sulu answered. "I can't find him."

The main screen flashed behind them, and the image of Admiral Marcus' empty chair appeared, followed quickly by Harrison pushing Kirk into view, holding a phaser to the back of his head.

"_I'm going to make this very simple for you."_ Harrison said.

"Captain." Spock said with concern.

"_Your crew for my crew."_ Harrison continued.

"You betrayed us." Spock hissed.

"_Oh, you are smart, Mr. Spock."_ Harrison replied mockingly.

"_Spock, don't-"_ Kirk started to say quickly, before Harrison slammed his phaser against the back of Kirk's head. Carol watched in concern, still holding her leg, when Kirk slumped to the ground at Harrison's feet.

Spock took a step forward, as if he could do something to help, as members of the bridge crew stood up around him, all focus now on Harrison.

"_Mr. Spock, give me my crew."_ Harrison repeated.

"And what will you do when you get them?" Spock asked.

"_Continue the work we were doing before we were banished."_ Harrison answered.

"Which, as I understand it, involves the mass genocide of any being that you find to be less than superior." Spock replied, referencing what he had found in the records. "Not all records of you were burned, it seems."

"_Shall we destroy you, Mr. Spock?"_ Harrison asked. _"Or will you give me what I want?"_

Spock was silent for a moment, considering his options. "We have no transporter capabilities." He finally said.

"_Fortunately, mine are fully functional."_ Harrison replied. _"Drop your shields."_

"If I do so, I have no guarantee that you will not destroy the _Enterprise_." Spock pointed out.

"_Well then, let's play this out logically, Mr. Spock."_ Harrison sighed. _"Firstly, I will kill your captain to demonstrate my resolve. Then, if yours holds, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew." _His annoyed look turned into a satisfied smile as he spoke.

"If you destroy our ship, you will also destroy your own people." Spock replied.

"_Your crew requires oxygen to survive, mine does not."_ Harrison shot back. _"I will target your life support systems, located behind the aft nacelle."_

Behind him, Carol watched as Kirk slowly tried to pull himself up, but he was too weak from the beating that Harrison had given him.

"_And after every single person aboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people."_ Harrison finished. _"Now, shall we begin?"_

Spock stared at Harrison angrily for a moment, but eventually broke his glare, looking down at Sulu. "Lower shields." He ordered.

Sulu nodded, clicking a switch on his console.

* * *

"A wise choice, Mr. Spock." Harrison said, before angrily kicking Kirk in the stomach, sending the captain groaning to the ground.

Harrison walked to the _Vengeance's_ main console, activating the beaming targeting function. On the larger ship's main screen, a diagram of the _Enterprise_ appeared, zooming in on the weapons bay and locking onto the projectiles.

"I see that your seventy-two torpedoes are still in their tubes." Harrison said. "If they are not mine, Commander, I will know it."

"_Vulcans do not lie."_ Spock replied evenly. _"The torpedoes are yours."_

Harrison clicked a few buttons, activating the beaming process. Inside of the weapons bay, white beaming trails circled every one of the torpedoes, transferring them to Hanger 7 of the _Vengeance_. A camera view of the hangar appeared on the main screen, and Harrison smiled as he saw the torpedoes appear. They were indeed his, and his long crusade to save his people was at last complete.

"Thank you, Mr. Spock." He whispered, relief filling his voice.

"_I have fulfilled your terms."_ Spock said. "_Now fulfill mine."_

Kirk slowly began to push himself upwards again, as Scotty regained consciousness and sat up, shaking his head.

"Well, Kirk, it seems apt to return you to your crew." Harrison said, sitting in the Admiral's chair and clicking a few switches. White beaming trails circled around Kirk, Scotty and Carol, sending them back to the _Enterprise_.

"After all, no ship should go down without her captain." Harrison hissed.

* * *

Spock turned away from the screen to Sulu when a loud alarm started blaring through the bridge.

"He's locking phasers on us, sir!" Sulu reported.

* * *

Kirk, Scotty and Carol appeared inside the cell that Harrison had been held in, looking around, confused. The attending officer turned around at the sound, seeing the three officers inside.

Scotty ran at the glass and kicked it. "Get us out of here now!" He yelled.

Before the officer could react, the entire ship jolted, and Scotty was thrown against the wall.

* * *

The _Vengeance_ had resumed its firing on the _Enterprise_, firing all cannons and torpedoes at the smaller ship, causing explosions to appear across its hull. Only now, the smaller ship barely had enough power to stand up to it.

* * *

The bridge jolted repeatedly with every blast that hit it, sparks raining down from the roof. Red lights and blaring alarms filled the white room.

"Shields at six percent!" Sulu yelled.

"The torpedoes!" Spock yelled back. "How much time, Lieutenant?"

"Twelve seconds, sir!" Another bridge officer answered.

"Crew of the _Enterprise_, prepare for imminent proximity detonation." Spock said into the chair's comms, relaying the message across the ship.

* * *

"What's he talking about? What detonation?" Scotty asked, while he and Kirk helped to carry Carol down a hallway toward the med bay. Sparks flew down from the ceiling while red-shirted officers scrambled around them.

"The torpedoes." Kirk realized. "He armed the damn torpedoes!"

* * *

Inside the _Vengeance's_ Hanger 7, the 72 torpedoes finished their countdown, their small screens lighting up red, announcing their simultaneous explosions. The explosions tore through the lower hull of the _Vengeance_, damaging it severely and ending its attack.

In the bridge, the explosions jolted the entire ship, sending Harrison flying forward onto a console. The explosions continued to rock the _Vengeance_, destroying its engineering bay, effectively knocking out all systems that the ship needed to function properly. As he pulled himself up, sparks flew up all around him, and he realized what had happened.

"No!" He screamed, the anger and sadness in his voice indistinguishable.

But there was no-one to hear his anguished cry, as explosions continued to rock the ship.

* * *

"Sir, their weapons have been knocked out." Sulu reported with a smile, turning to face the captain's chair. "Not, bad, Commander."

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Spock nodded.

* * *

"Bones!" Kirk yelled, as he and Scotty entered the med bay with Carol. Almost every bed had an injured officer on it.

"Nurse!" Scotty called.

Uhura and a nurse ran over and took Carol from Scotty and Kirk, leading her away carefully.

"Good to see you, Jim." McCoy nodded, approaching them slowly.

"Who helped Spock detonate those torpedoes?" Kirk asked, slightly breathless.

"I did." McCoy answered.

Kirk looked surprised for a moment, before returning to his main thought. "He killed Harrison's crew." He said, in disbelief at Spock's action. He knew that the Vulcan side of Spock repressed emotion, but he didn't know that it would go this far.

"Spock's cold, but he's not that cold." McCoy corrected. "I've got Harrison's crew." He pointed to the other side of the med bay, where Kirk turned to see all of the cryo tubes containing the frozen crew piled up. "Seventy-two human popsicles, safe and sound in their cryo tubes."

"Son of a bitch!" Kirk exclaimed, impressed by Spock's plan, and that it had worked. Before he could ask anything else, the lights in the med bay flickered off.

* * *

All across the ship, the blue lights slowly shut off, being replaced by the red glow of emergency power, and the usual hum of the ship died down to silence. The bridge was suddenly shrouded in darkness, except for the glowing of the consoles.

"Sir, the central power grid is failing!" A bridge officer reported to Spock.

"Switch to auxiliary power." The Vulcan ordered.

"Auxiliary power failing, sir." An insect-like alien officer reported.

Spock didn't ask any more questions. He knew what the answers would be.

* * *

The _Enterprise_ slowly started to turn in space, all of the systems keeping it in the air now shut down, and began descending downward through a field of debris, towards Earth.

* * *

"Commander, our ship's caught in Earth's gravity!" Sulu reported.

"Can we stop?" Spock asked.

"I can't do anything." Sulu answered, looking around hopelessly.

* * *

The _Enterprise_ started to rotate faster as it descended, an explosion booming on its less damaged thruster.

* * *

In the engineering bay, Chekov ran across the warp core, holding onto a large spire when the explosion rocked the area. He reached a console, where a large screen had a flashing red window that read _**"WARP CORE OFFLINE"**_.

"Clear the area!" He yelled across the bay.

* * *

Inside of the med bay, nurses were busy securing patients to their beds, while nearly being thrown off of their feet every few seconds.

"Engage emergency lockdown!" McCoy yelled, running across the bay to ensure that Carol was properly in place. "I hope you don't get seasick." He said, trying a joke to reassure her.

"Do you?" Carol asked.

"Yeah." McCoy nodded.

* * *

"Lieutenant, sound evacuation, all decks." Spock ordered sharply.

"Aye, sir." A blue-shirted officer nodded, activating the signal on his console.

"As acting Captain, I order you to abandon this ship." Spock addressed the bridge crew. He clicked a button on the captain's chair, and securing belts folded down across his chest. "I will remain behind and divert all power to life support and evacuation shuttle bays."

The bridge crew just stared at him silently, while the robotic evacuation announcement echoed through the room.

"I order you to abandon the ship!" Spock repeated, with more urgency, and a slight bit of panic.

"With all due respect, Commander, we're not going anywhere." Sulu replied, turning back forward and clicking a button, securing belts descending over his chest.

The other members of the bridge crew did the same, one by one.

* * *

"One day I've been off this ship! One bloody day!" Scotty yelled, as he and Kirk ran down a hallway.

As they turned a corner, the _Enterprise_ pitched, causing the hallway to rotate. Sparks exploded outward as Kirk and Scotty fell over, grabbing wildly at the grooves in the walls, trying not to fall down the long distance.

* * *

"Gravity systems are failing." Spock yelled. "Hold on! Hold on!"

Kirk and Scotty had continued to run down the hallway once the Enterprise had levelled out, but it had continued to turn, and now they were holding onto the large arches on a bridge. They both tried to grab a female officer who slid by them, down towards a hallway. Kirk stared after her in shock as she disappeared from view, his words to Pike echoing in his mind.

_"Do you know how many crew members I've lost since I became captain? Not one!"_

The evacuation warning again resounded through the hallways, snapping Kirk back to his present situation.

"There won't be time for evacuation if we don't get power to stabilize the damn ship!" Scotty shouted.

"Can we restore it?" Kirk asked.

"Only from engineering!" Scotty answered. "We have to get back to the warp core!"

The _Enterprise_ returned upward, allowing Scotty and Kirk to stand up on the bridge. Scotty looked up, shocked still at the sight of officers hanging over balconies on the levels above them, as well as the sparking debris strewn around. He had never seen the ship like this.

"Scotty, we've got to get the power back on!" Kirk yelled at him. "Come on!"

The _Enterprise_ slowly increased its speed of descent as it got closer to Earth. Kirk and Scotty were now running down an empty hallway, hoping it was because all of the officers nearby had gotten away. They were waiting for the ship to rotate now, and when it happened, they hesitantly but successfully continued their sprint along the side of the wall. The only disadvantage was the change in terrain, the difficulties of which was exemplified for them in the form of an approaching hallway. From their current position on the wall, it was a straight drop away from their destination.

"Scotty, we have to jump!" Kirk yelled, as a blue-shirted officer fell down the hallway, smashing against the hall's corner.

"What?" Scotty yelled back.

"Jump! Jump!" Kirk yelled, throwing himself across the hallway's gaping entrance, successfully landing and continuing his run.

"Oh, God!" Scotty screamed as he jumped, but still managed to clear the distance.

* * *

A large crack started to tear through the floor of the _Enterprise's_ bridge, but it was, surprisingly, the least of Spock's concerns.

"Emergency power at fifteen percent, and dropping!" Officer Darwin reported.

* * *

Kirk and Scotty had made it to the engineering bay, and were running down multiple metal walkways, past enormous fuel tanks, towards the warp core. All of the engineers were seemingly evacuated, which was convenient for a clearer path, but it didn't change the ship's motions.

The engineering bay was filled with a droning mechanical moan as the bay shifted, causing Kirk and Scotty to quickly lie down and hold onto the metal bars of the walkway's railing. But before the ship leveled out, they both looked up to see a large piece of debris fall down towards them, hitting their walkway with a bone-jarring impact. As it flew downward below them, the walkway creaked and groaned.

"Jim!" Scotty yelled.

"Hold on!" Kirk yelled back.

Both he and Scotty knew what was probably going to happen next, and now they were just waiting. Thankfully, they felt the ship begin to turn upwards again, and they rolled with it back onto the walkway, getting up and running down the rest of it as fast as they could. As soon as they reached the next staircase down, the walkway buckled and broke, falling down several metres before crashing into another metal structure, and shattering into pieces.

"Captain!"

Scotty and Kirk turned at the young voice, to see Chekov standing a few levels below them.

"What's he still doing here?" Scotty asked.

"I don't know, but we could use his help." Kirk replied, starting to run back down the walkways.

The three of them joined up, running through the rest of the walkways into a long series of winding hallways filled with steam and tubes. Kirk was leading the other two officers, who were having a rapid conversation about the ship's current functionality.

"Even if we get the warp core online, we've still got to redirect the power!" Scotty was saying.

"He's right, Captain!" Chekov called up to Kirk.

"What are you talking about?" Kirk asked, the three of them stopping in a clear area of the hallway.

"Someone has to hit the manual override." Scotty explained, turning to Chekov. "Laddie, there's a switch, it's near the-"

"Behind the deflector dish!" Chekov yelled. "I'll flip the switch!" He took off running, reaching a metal staircase and beginning to ascend.

"Let's go!" Kirk yelled, and he and Scotty ran in the same direction, past the staircase and towards the warp core.

* * *

As soon as Chekov reached the top of the staircase, the ship pitched, sending him sliding, screaming downwards across the floor.

* * *

Kirk and Scotty ran into the crowded shuttle bay, and stopped in shock at what they saw. Shuttles were flying off of their moorings and smashing against the ground, while officers lost their footing with the turning ship, flying across the ground.

Everyone was trapped.

* * *

"Mr. Sulu, divert any remaining power to stabilizers." Spock ordered.

"Doing what I can, sir." Sulu replied nervously. "Doing what I can."

* * *

The ship had turned upright again, and Chekov had reached the long hallway behind the deflector dish. He fell to his knees, sliding a few feet across the floor, and stopping at a large, reinforced console at the end of the hallway. He rapidly clicked the opening switches, straining at the heavy weight as he removed the console's top, to reveal a large red lever that would activate the manual override. Chekov strained with all of his effort to lift the lever, and pushed it down the other way, and a series of positive-sounding mechanical beeps started to appear.

* * *

"_Core misaligned. Danger."_

The words echoed through the warp core chamber as Kirk and Scotty finally reached it, Scotty running around to the core's main console, all of the hope disappearing from his face as he absorbed the information on the screen.

"Oh, no, no, no, no! " Scotty yelled, slamming a first down on the console's keyboard.

"What?" Kirk asked, breathless from their run.

"The housings are misaligned!" Scotty explained. "There's no way we can redirect the power!" He turned slowly to the captain, nothing but panic on his face. "The ship's dead, sir. She's gone."

But Kirk had lost enough today. He looked over his shoulder at the warp core, back to Scotty, and silently refused to lose everything, and everyone.

"No, she's not." Jim muttered, turning and running into the warp core.

"Wait, Jim!' Scotty yelled, following him. "If we go in there, we'll die!"

Kirk ignored him, dashing through the complicated structure of the warp core towards the entrance.

"Do you hear me?" Scotty continued. "The radiation will kill us!"

Again, Jim didn't answer.

"Will you listen to me? What the hell are you doing?" Scotty demanded, more panic in his voice when Kirk reached the entrance to the main core and started typing into the activation pad, ignoring the radiation warning sign on the door.

"I'm opening the door. I'm going in." Kirk answered evenly, as if it was the most normal answer.

"That door is there to stop us from getting irradiated!" Scotty shouted, pointing wildly at the door. "We'd be dead before we made the climb!"

Kirk paused before he finished the activation sequence, standing up straight, not looking at Scotty.

"You're not making the climb." He whispered.

Kirk whirled around and punched Scotty in the temple, knocking the Scottish man out instantly. Kirk caught Scotty before he landed, setting him down slowly in a chair and clicking a few consoles on the console in front of it, securing belts folding down over Scotty.

Kirk ran back over to the door, finishing the sequence and pulling it open, running into the heavily radiated chamber. The shaking of the ship made him pause, but he recovered, advancing into the chamber. The clicked the opening switches of a panel on the wall, the door of a tunnel opening at his feet. Kirk got down and crawled on his hands and knees through the tunnel, refusing to give up at this point.

Eventually the tunnel opened up into the enormous round structure of the interior warp core. Kirk slowly climbed his way up to the misalignment in the core, but it was several feet above with no convenient staircase nearby. Kirk stared upwards for a few seconds, wondering if he could just stop now. If, by some miracle, the core would realign itself and they would all be safe.

Kirk started to climb.

He felt his ship spinning as he climbed up the large, black tubes that were wound around the core, having to pause every now and then at a strange feeling of weakness filling him. The radiation was starting to catch up with him.

* * *

"If we don't get power or shields back online, we're going to be incinerated on re-entry!" Sulu yelled.

Spock looked down, once again preparing himself for death.

* * *

The _Enterprise_ entered the Earth's atmosphere, and the outer layers of the hull started to burn away.

* * *

Kirk finally managed to pull himself up onto the warp core's main structure. He looked at the two pieces of the misaligned core, trying to figure out a way to fix it. He walked around to the other side of the core, grabbing the upper part of the disconnected structure. He started to slam his feet downward against the lower half, trying to pull it back into place. With every kick, the core shifted slightly, and Kirk kicked harder, finally seeing a solution, and willing to do anything. He started to yell with the effort as he kicked, and smiled when he heard a mechanical hum start. He gave the core a final kick, and it realigned, energy glowing between the two core halves. All of the power returned to the ship all at once, all lights in the chamber turning on, and the energy sent Kirk flying backwards, smashing against the wall and falling to the bottom of the room.

* * *

"Warp core is back online!" Sulu yelled happily, as everyone in the bridge smiled at the returning lights. "Shields online!"

"Maximum thrusters, Mr. Sulu!" Spock ordered.

* * *

Every thruster on the underside of the _Enterprise_ fired at once, the burning of its hull now stopped. The Enterprise continued downward through a layer of clouds, but eventually the thrusters kicked in, stopping the ship and slowly raising it upwards. The thrusters slowly disengaged as the ship stabilized, severely damaged on the outside, but functional enough to keep it flying.

* * *

Sulu laughed in relief, while members of the bridge crew reported the restored systems to Spock.

"Shields at full capacity, sir."

"Power fully online."

"Altitude stabilizing." Sulu said, turning to face the Commander.

"It's a miracle." Officer Darwin said.

Spock clicked a button on the chair, and his securing belts folded away. "There are no such things." He muttered.

"_Engineering to bridge."_ The comms on the captain's chair chirped. _"Mr. Spock?"_

"_Mr. Scott."_ Spock answered.

"_Sir, you'd better get down here."_ Scotty said, sounding pained. _"Better hurry."_

Spock's suspicion about the Enterprise's sudden functionality amplified, and he realized that something wasn't right. When he realized that he had heard nothing from the captain, he got up from the chair, sprinting across the bridge to the elevator, where he brushed past Uhura as she exited it.

* * *

Spock didn't slow his run until he reached the warp core, stopping in front of Scotty. The Scottish man shook his head, looking over at the warp core's entrance. Spock quickly walked over to the reinforced glass door, looking shocked at what he saw behind it.

He turned back to Scotty. "Open it." He said urgently.

"The decontamination process is not complete. You'd flood the whole compartment." Scotty replied. "The door's locked, sir."

Spock turned back to the door, kneeling down. On the other side, Kirk was leaning against the door, multiple cuts in his face, his eyes bloodshot, and breathing heavily. The captain slowly moved against the wall next to the door, reaching up and pulling down a small lever. Behind him, the tunnel that led into the warp core slid shut. Kirk leaned back against the wall, that small action seemingly draining him of all energy. Spock just watched him, silent and shocked.

"Did it work?" Kirk croaked weakly, his voice slightly muffled by the glass.

"The ship is stabilized." Spock nodded. "You saved us."

"So did you." Kirk replied. "Good idea with the torpedoes."

"It is what you would have done." Spock said.

"And this..." Kirk trailed off, clearly straining to speak. "...this is what you would have done. It's only logical."

Spock didn't have an answer, but he just continued to stare at Kirk, almost in amazement. He hadn't known that the captain was willing to go this far, no matter what he had seen.

"I'm scared, Spock." Kirk admitted.

Spock's emotionless barrier started to break, and his sadness appeared, his humanity started to show.

"Help me not be." Kirk begged, a tear running down his eye. "How do you choose not to feel?"

Spock shook his head, his eyes wet. "I do not know." He replied, his voice slightly wavering. "Right now I am failing."

Kirk didn't seem disappointed by this, but he instead slowly looked up at the Vulcan. "I want you to know why I couldn't let you die." He said softly. "Why I went back for you in the volcano."

"Because you are my friend." Spock said it as a statement, but it had a slight question in it as well.

"And I always will be." Kirk nodded, eliminating the question.

Kirk started to cough weakly, but repressed the cold feeling expanding inside of him to place his hand against the door's glass. After a few seconds, Spock held his hand in a Vulcan salute against the glass, trying to comfort the captain. The two men held the sign of friendship for seconds, Spock eventually breaking his gaze from it to look at Kirk.

The captain was staring sadly at their hands, smiling and on the edge of crying, but too drained to fully manage either. Kirk slowly turned to look at Spock, who was now threatening to break into tears more and more. Kirk's mouth managed to twitch into a smile at his Vulcan friend, before his face stopped moving, and his eyes went blank. Kirk's hand slid down the glass, stopping limply at the bottom of the door.

Spock slowly brought his hand away from the glass, failing to repress his emotions as tears fell down his cheeks. He stared down at the floor, completely lost in his grief.

Scotty cried as he watched the Vulcan, and Uhura ran into the core structure behind him, stopping when she saw Kirk and Spock. She put a hand to her moth when she realized what had happened, and how it was affecting Spock.

Spock hadn't felt despair to this degree since the destruction of Vulcan, and the loss of his mother. At that time, he had tried to preserve the Vulcan side of himself, for his people. But through Kirk, and through Uhura, he had learned the value of his human half. He had gotten his revenge against those responsible for the deaths of his mother and his people, and a strange sense of closure, even if he still remembered the pain.

But now, the person who had caused the death of his friend was still out there, and Spock's pain wasn't fading. It was amplifying. It was evolving into anger.

Spock started breathing heavily as he stared at the floor. His tears were forgotten, every cell in his body now turned to rage. He looked up into the air, and let out a scream. It was a primal scream, one that encompassed all of his grief, pain, sadness, rage, and frustration.

And, above all, it was a scream for revenge.

* * *

Outside of the _Enterprise_, the enormous black shape of the _Vengeance_ plummeted downward past the smaller ship, a long black trail of smoke emanating from its broken thrusters. Its proximity to the _Enterprise_ shook the smaller ship, and the black ship continued downward towards the planet.

"God, that was close!" Sulu exclaimed, watching the exterior sensors.

* * *

Inside the _Vengeance's_ bridge, Harrison stumbled towards the main piloting consoles, his long, black hair swinging scraggily, the jolting of the ship constantly threatening to knock him off of his feet. He held onto the console when he reached it, managing to maintain balance.

"Set destination, Starfleet Headquarters!" Harrison yelled, activating the voice control function while he looked down at the console, watching the descent path of the ship.

"_Engines compromised."_ The robotic voice responded. _"Cannot guarantee destination. Confirm?"_

As sparks flew from multiple consoles around him, Harrison looked up out of the main viewport, all of his anger and bitterness towards the organization that had caused him so much pain summed up in his answer.

"_Confirm."_ Harrison hissed.

* * *

Down among the streets of San Francisco, citizen's days were interrupted at the sound of an enormous booming echoing through the sky. Conversations paused, heads turned, and confusion turned to shock at the sight of the _Vengeance_ descending rapidly towards them. People began to run to spots on the street or in their homes where the falling ship was more visible, and Starfleet officers ran out of the headquarters, watching from stone walkways. The _Vengeance_ wasn't heading towards the main building, but its current path was still sending it directly towards the centre of the city, falling lower and lower towards the San Francisco Bay.

The enormous ship smashed into Alcatraz, destroying the island with its lower dish. It then crashed into the Bay, sending a tidal wave of water upwards into the air. But the _Vengeance_ kept moving forward, beginning to cleave into the city.

Citizens at this point started to scream and run, but the _Vengeance_ was moving too fast, and smashed a trail into the futuristic glass architecture that made up the San Francisco skyline. As it continued its destructive path into the city, the thrusters disconnected from the main dish, and the giant, black, circular body of the ship slowly turned upwards as it was caught on the ground. It slowed to a stop, the buildings presenting no obstacle and shattering around it while the dish crumpled, small explosions appearing all across it and sending debris down to the ground. There was no way of telling how much damage had been done, or how many were dead.

For Harrison, the _Vengeance_ had lived up to its name.

* * *

"Search the enemy ship for signs of life." Spock snarled as he ran onto the bridge, Uhura following him.

"Sir, there's no way anyone could survive that," Sulu tried to reason.

"He could." Spock replied.

Sulu was taken aback by Spock's intensity, and nodded. "Yes, sir."

* * *

The front of the _Vengeance's_ bridge had been ripped open to show what remained of the city below it, while the sounds of sirens from approaching emergency vehicles. The ship was dead now, but there was one thing inside still alive: Harrison.

The augmented man groaned as he kept his strong grip on the sides of the console, the only injury on him a small cut on his cheek, before he rolled over, trying to find a way out. But the dish was now pointed straight down, and he slid across the floor, grunting with every bump that he hit. He was eventually stopped by a piece of the floor jutting outward, and it managed to hold his weight.

Harrison slowly pulled himself to his feet, looking down at the city while he held some cables that were dangling nearby for support. He was intimidated by the distance at first; the prospect of jumping the entire way down didn't seem like the best idea to him. But he overcame his brief fear with the memory of what he had just survived, and jumped out of the bridge, hitting the outside hull of the _Vengeance_ and sliding down it towards the ground.

* * *

"Whoa! He just jumped thirty metres!" Sulu exclaimed, as the bridge crew watched the scanner monitoring the _Vengeance_.

"Can we beam him up?" Spock asked.

"He's moving with too much debris, I have no incoming signal." Chekov said, having sat back in his old seat. "But it may be possible to beam you down, sir."

Spock turned to Uhura, who gave him a short nod. The Vulcan turned and ran out of the bridge. As he made his way the transporter room, he picked up a phaser and a holster belt, hooking it up and getting ready for his landing.

"Prepare for coordinates." He said to the transport officer, who nodded.

"_Enter three-five-one-seven by two-five-nine-eight."_ Chekov's voice crackled through the room's comms.

"Coordinates confirmed." The officer nodded, adding in the numbers and activating the beaming.

The white lights trailed quickly around Spock as he clicked the phaser to its kill setting, preparing himself for what he might encounter.

* * *

Harrison pushed his way between two Starfleet officers who were running towards the wreckage site. He had managed to make it far away from what remained of the _Vengeance_, and was now focusing on escaping altogether, to try to form his next move. He grabbed a long black coat from a nearby café table and pulled it on, seemingly free.

The low whirring of beaming appeared, and Harrison turned back into the crowd to see Spock appear, the crowd dispersing away from him. The Vulcan turned his head as soon as the white lights disappeared, and the two met eyes, a mutual hatred cemented between them. But instead of taking chances, Harrison turned and ran, Spock following him without hesitation.

Harrison continued to sprint away, weaving through people in an effort to lose Spock. When that effort failed, he took a sharp turn into a building, running up a short staircase and smashing through a glass door, letting nothing stop him. But Spock's focus on catching him kept him in pursuit, through the outside of the building and back out into the streets.

People got out of their way, seeming confused as they ran, but the two ignored everyone else, focusing on the path ahead of them.

* * *

Inside the _Enterprise's_ med bay, McCoy opened a light blue body bag to reveal the blank face of Kirk. A team had transported him up to the bay, placing the captain in the bag after Spock had told them of his death. Still McCoy had held onto hope, but looking at Kirk's face, that hope disappeared. He clenched his fists by his side and began to turn, while Carol slowly approached the table, looking down at the fallen captain. Behind her, all officers inside the med bay looked at the table, surrounding it slowly.

Before McCoy walked away to grieve alone, his eyes already wet, he turned back, placing his hand to Kirk's neck to search for a pulse, for anything to try to deny what he was seeing. For a few seconds, he felt nothing, and he bowed his head, squeezing his eyes shut.

And then he felt the slight movement underneath his finger.

Hope returned instantly, and McCoy looked up, blinking away tears with a look of disbelief on his face. Carol recognized the look, and when she and McCoy joined eyes, they both had the same idea.

"Get me a cryo tube, now!" McCoy yelled.

* * *

Harrison continued his sprint towards the end of the elevated city level that he had been running on. At the end of his vision, he could see a garbage barge port, and a large red shuttle starting to rise into the air. He increased his running speed, pushing several people to the ground when he ran into them, and leaped into the air at the edge, landing smoothly on top of the red barge. He turned back to see if Spock had managed to keep up with him. He saw Spock still a fair distance away, so he turned, standing up and relishing in the victory of his escape.

"_Even if it would have been more satisfactory to kill him."_ Harrison thought.

Spock continued his run, also increasing his speed at the sight of Harrison getting away. He jumped over the edge of the elevation, barely managing to grab a landing leg beneath the garbage barge, yelling at the strain of holding on as it started to fly away on its designated path. But he ignored the effort, focusing on climbing to the top of the small shuttle.

Unfortunately, Harrison heard Spock grunting with effort at his climb, and when the Vulcan came into view, all of Harrison's desire for revenge reappeared. The augmented man ran across the barge, stomping down on Spock's arm and causing the Vulcan's phaser to drop, spinning downward out of view.

Harrison reached down and grabbed Spock, yelling in anger as he lifted the Vulcan and threw him across the barge, where he smashed into one of the two large panels pointing up into the sky, preventing him from flying over the edge.

Harrison advanced on Spock, who managed to dodge his first punch, but when Spock struck Harrison across the face, and the man gave no reaction, instead spinning and punching again, Spock realized that he was going to be on the back foot of this fight. So Spock went defensive, opting to block and dodge Harrison's powerful blows, but still trying to get some hits in. The result was Spock's punches being relatively ineffectual while he tried his best to dodge Harrison's fists. The barge sailed on through the sky, adding the wind to Spock's list of disadvantages.

Eventually, Spock managed to knock Harrison's fists away and strike in quickly, grabbing his enemy in a Vulcan neck pinch. Normally, this would have immediately ended the fight, but instead of instantly knocking out Harrison, the man simply yelled in pain, arching his head back, but resisting. He slowly fell to his knees, still yelling, but managed to reach over and tear Spock's hand away, dodging the Vulcan's punch and giving him two across the face.

* * *

Inside the _Enterprise's_ med bay, the medical staff was now rushing all around to complete Dr. McCoy's task. Carol was monitoring Kirk with multiple sensors, all of them telling her that he was alive, but his vitals were slipping.

"Get this guy out of the cryo tube, but keep him in an induced coma." McCoy ordered, as tube was placed next to Kirk. "This tube is the only chance we've got to preserve Kirk's brain function. Maybe it can stabilize his vitals, too."

"How much of Harrison's blood is left?" Carol asked.

"None." McCoy realized, remembering that he had used it all in the tests.

He quickly went to the other side of the med bay, clicking the comms button on a console. "_Enterprise_ to Spock." He called into it. "Spock!"

* * *

Harrison had grabbed Spock by the neck and lifted him into the air, and was now staring at him, his eyes filled with rage and hatred. He punched the Vulcan, sending him flying backwards near the edge of the barge. Harrison quickly closed the distance and grabbed Spock's head, lifting the Vulcan up and beginning to squeeze.

Spock could hear small cracking noises, and realized what would happen if he didn't stop Harrison. He did the only thing he could think to do, and placed a hand to Harrison's face, activating Vulcan mind-meld. Harrison clenched his eyes shut and yelled at the sudden flood of unfamiliar thoughts entering his head, but there was no way for him to resist.

Harrison's grip weakened, and he brought his leg up, slamming his knee into Spock's head, ending the connection. Spock fell to the barge's surface while Harrison stumbled back, blinking rapidly to try to clear himself of the strange experience. Before Spock could pull himself up, Harrison ran to edge of the barge and jumped.

Spock looked up in shock and confusion. But Harrison had jumped down to another, identical barge that had been following the same path. Spock looked over the edge to see the second barge flying underneath the one that he was currently on, and he refused to give up the chase. Spock ran to the end of the barge and jumped, falling down through the air and smashing into the other barge, yelling with the jolt of the impact and rolling backwards, hanging off the edge of the red shuttle.

Harrison turned at the sound of Spock yelling with the effort of pulling himself back up onto the barge, and shook his head at the Vulcan's persistence. But if Spock wanted to keep fighting, Harrison was willing to give him one. But now, he was going to finish it.

Harrison ran at Spock just as he was about to stand up, and kicked the Vulcan in the face, sending him flying to the end of the barge on his back. Harrison was on him instantly, pummeling him with multiple punches to the face and stomach. Spock had no time to recover, and Harrison threw him, causing him to roll to the other end of the barge. When he sat up on his knees, Harrison once again slammed a foot across his face, sending the Vulcan sprawling to the barge's surface again. Harrison was on him in an instant, resuming his powerful blows to Spock's face. A small part of him was impressed that the Vulcan hadn't given up yet.

* * *

Kirk had been placed inside of the cryo tube, and it closed over his head, sealing him inside.

"Activate the cryogenic sequence." McCoy ordered.

Carol clicked a sequence of buttons on a panel on top of the tube, and the glass circle showed ice appear, frosting up the glass.

"McCoy to bridge. I can't reach Spock." McCoy said into his comms. "I need Harrison alive. You get that son of a bitch back on board right now! I think he can save Kirk."

"Can't we use one of Harrison's other crew members?" Carol asked. "Are they all like him?"

"They might be, but this technology hasn't been studied in years." McCoy answered, gesturing to the pod. "I don't know how cryo-stasis affected their blood, or if it'll work. But we do know what Harrison's blood can do, and that we can use it."

* * *

"Can we beam them up to the ship?" Sulu asked, having taken the captain's chair and was overseeing the chase.

"The trackers are damaged, I can't lock on to them properly!" Chekov exclaimed, clicking rapidly in an attempt to find a solution.

"Can you beam someone down accurately?" Uhura asked, coming up with an idea.

* * *

Harrison's powerful blows had knocked all of the energy out of Spock, and now the Vulcan wasn't even trying to fight back, green blood dripping from wounds on his face. Harrison seemed to realize that he wasn't going to encounter any more resistance, se he decided to end the fight. He kneeled down and grabbed Spock's head, starting to squeeze again. Spock didn't have the energy to fight, so he weakly grasped at Harrison's arms, trying to pry the augmented man away. But Harrison didn't give up, pressing harder, and the small cracking noises started to appear again.

Before he could finish the job and crush Spock's skull, there was a loud whirring as the white lights of beaming swirled around rapidly behind them. When they disappeared, Uhura was standing on the other side of the barge, holding a phaser, and she turned to face them at the same time that Harrison noticed the noise. Uhura aimed her phaser and fired a stun shot into Harrison's back, but it had no effect. She continued to fire blue bolts into Harrison's chest after he let go of Spock's head, standing up and starting towards her. The stun blasts were slowing him down, but he was more focused than he had been on the Vengeance's bridge. He yelled with every blast, but pushed through the phaser's effects, focusing on slowly getting to Uhura and snapping her neck. Uhura's face grew more nervous with every ineffective shot that she fired.

Spock slowly pulled himself up, looking around and coming to a realization. Harrison had been built to withstand a lot of things, but he couldn't fight against materials that hadn't existed.

Like the metal that made up the barge.

Spock reached over to a small piece of loose metal on the red shuttle's side, ripping it out. He stood up just as Harrison was about to reach Uhura, and he grabbed the augmented man's shoulder and pulled him back, slamming the piece of space-age metal across his face. Harrison spun, reacting as a normal person would due to the combination of the multiple stun bolts and the metal. Spock took this opportunity to grab Harrison's arm, putting it over his shoulder and pulling it down sharply. Harrison's arm broke with a sharp snap and caused a scream of pain from the augmented man.

"Spock!" Uhura yelled, trying to stop the Vulcan before he went too far.

But Spock ignored her, grabbing Harrison by the front of his shirt and slamming him down to the barge's surface. Uhura kept her phaser trained on Harrison, but Spock started to repeatedly slam his fist into Harrison's face. But now, Harrison had been so weakened by the multiple attacks that he wasn't even fighting back.

"Spock!" Uhura yelled again, falling to her knees, realizing what Spock would do if she couldn't stop him. "Spock, stop! Stop!"

Spock ignored her, continuing to pummel Harrison.

"We need him to save Kirk!" Uhura yelled.

Spock stopped his assault, looking up in shock at Uhura, letting what she had said process in his mind. He looked back down at Harrison, who weakly moved his head. He had been beaten.

That was good enough for Spock.

Spock looked at Uhura and nodded, before he grabbed Harrison's collar, lifting his head away from the barge's surface. Harrison barely reacted, his eyes flickering weakly.

Spock brought his fist down across Harrison's face again, ending the fight.

* * *

_**So, that's Chapter 5. In my opinion, this was the best one, and certainly the most fun to write. Well, that's enough of me reviewing my own work, so I'll leave you guys with your opinions. Hopefully you enjoyed, see you next time for the ending!**_


	6. Chapter 6

_...what is it..._

_...it's a boy..._

_...let's name him Jim..._

_...your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes..._

_...he saved eight hundred lives..._

_...I dare you to do better..._

Kirk's eyes shot open, the distorted words and memories that had been buried away deep in his head dissipating when he regained consciousness. He took in his surroundings while breathing heavily, feeling air once more enter his lungs. He was dressed in a plain white robe and laying in a large, extremely comfortably padded bed. He'd been in enough hospitals to recognize one, even though this time he felt extremely tired, like it was the first time he was ever waking up. He closed his eyes, remembering what had happened to him, and took a moment to thank everything he believed in that he was still alive. He turned his head to the side, seeing McCoy standing next to a large monitor, which was displaying his vitals.

"Don't be so melodramatic, you weren't even dead." McCoy joked.

Kirk rolled his eyes, but was still happy to be alive, even if it meant having to hear more of McCoy's jokes.

"It was the transfusion that really took its toll." McCoy continued. "You were out cold for two weeks. The radiation shut down your body, but the cryo pod managed to preserve you."

"Transfusion?" Kirk asked weakly.

"Your cells were heavily irradiated, we didn't have any other choice." McCoy answered, pressing a small sensor to Kirk's chest.

"Harrison?" Kirk asked weakly, realizing what he meant.

"Once we caught up with him, I synthesized a serum from his blood." McCoy nodded. "Tell me, are you feeling homicidal? Power mad?"

"No more than usual." Kirk smiled. "How'd you catch him?"

"I didn't." McCoy replied, stepping back and walking around the bed.

Kirk turned his head after McCoy, but stopped part way through, seeing Spock standing at the end of his bed. The Vulcan walked forward, stopping at Kirk's side while McCoy checked the machinery on the other side of the bed.

Kirk smiled up at him. "You saved my life." He said.

"Uhura and I had something to do with it, too, you know." McCoy added.

Kirk shook his head, smiling lightly.

"You saved my life, Captain." Spock replied. "And the lives of-"

"Spock, just..." Kirk rolled his eyes. "Thank you."

"You are welcome, Jim." Spock replied.

Kirk smiled at the Vulcan and leaned back against the pillow, closing his eyes and relaxing.

* * *

In a remote Starfleet storage facility, two officers checked their electronic pads, ensuring that their cargo information was accurate. All 73 cryo pods, containing the ancient war criminals, were lined up and accounted for, so the officers walked towards the door, their job finished.

One of the officers took a final look down at a pod near the door, looking at the resting, peaceful face of John Harrison though the frosted glass. By now, the world knew his story, though not the complete details. The officers exited the storage from, entering the lock code and walking away as the heavy door slid shut.

The door closed with a resounding boom, leaving the augmented crew in darkness. None of them moved, locked in a frozen sleep. And in the pod next to Harrison, there was a more important member of the crew, a dark-skinned man with black hair combed back against his head.

Khan Noonien Singh.

The real evil had yet to be awoken.

* * *

"There will always be those who mean to do us harm. To stop them, we risk awakening the same evil in ourselves."

Kirk's voice echoed through the microphone across Starfleet Headquarters' main square, where every officer, along with citizens and family of the dead, were assembled and sitting, paying their respects to those who had been lost. Ceremonial jets flew overhead, leaving white trails in the air while two officers folded a Starfleet flag. There had been too many lives to account for everyone, so a group funeral had been decided on.

"Our first instinct is to seek revenge when those we love are taken from us." Kirk continued. "But that's not who we are. We are here today to rechristen the _U.S.S. Enterprise_, and to honor those who lost their lives nearly one year ago. When Christopher Pike first gave me his ship he had me recite the Captain's Oath, which were words I didn't appreciate at the time. But now, I see them as a call for us to remember who we once were, and who we must be again."

* * *

Kirk stepped onto the bridge, dressed once again in his yellow captain's shirt. He paused once he stepped through the door, smiling at the reassuring sounds of the room.

"Captain on the bridge."

Kirk smiled at Chekov's voice, walking forwards towards the captain's chair, where Sulu was sitting. "It's hard to get out of it once you've had a taste, isn't that right, Mr. Sulu?" He asked.

""Captain" does have a nice ring to it." Sulu nodded, standing up. "Chair's all yours, sir." He smiled, walking over to his station.

Kirk smiled back, holding the back of the chair reassuringly, reaching down to click the chair's comms button. "Mr. Scott, how's our core?"

"Purring like a kitten, Captain." Scotty reported happily. "She's ready for a long journey."

"Excellent!" Kirk replied, walking across the bridge to greet a scowling McCoy, who had just arrived on the bridge. "Come on, Bones! It's going to be fun."

McCoy's look of disdain followed Kirk as the captain walked past him, patting him on the shoulder. McCoy didn't react to the pat, looking ahead through the main viewport. "Five years in space. God help me." He growled to himself.

"Dr. Marcus." Kirk said, as he reached Carol's station. "I'm glad you could be part of the family."

"It's nice to have a family." Carol nodded.

Kirk nodded, acknowledging the sentiment, and walked back to his chair, standing in front of it and looking out at space through the main viewport. "Spock." He called.

"Yes, Captain?" The Vulcan asked, walking away from his station and standing at his friend's side.

"Where shall we go?" Kirk asked.

"As a mission of this duration has never been attempted, I defer to your good judgement, Captain." Spock answered, walking back over to his station with a small smile appearing on his face.

Kirk smiled, sitting down in his chair and momentarily enjoying the familiar feeling. It was calming, reassuring, and nostalgic. He felt at home again.

"Mr. Sulu, take us out." He said.

"Aye, Captain." Sulu replied, clicking the activation switches on his pilot's console.

* * *

Outside, the twin thrusters of the Enterprise fired, sending the ship forward into warp speed.

Off to the next adventure.

* * *

_Space, the final frontier._

_These are the voyages of the starship _Enterprise_._

_Her five-year mission, to explore strange new worlds, and seek out new life and new civilizations._

_To boldly go where no man has gone before._

* * *

_**So everyone, that's my version of Star Trek: Into Darkness. I got some positive feedback on this, and I had a lot of fun writing it. The next movie I'm tackling will have many more changes, so if you're interested, I hope you enjoy!**_

_**The fire rises...**_

_**Thank you so much to everyone who read this story, hopefully you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time!**_


End file.
